
Rnnk ■ &5 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT. 



/ 



THE DUNKERS 

A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION / 



BY 



JOHN LEWIS GILLIN, A. M., B. D. 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



new Vork 

1906 






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CONTENTS. 

Page 
Part I. The Dunkers in Europe. 

Chapter I. — Historical Introduction 9 

Chapter II. — The Origin of the Danker Doctrines 29 

Chapter III. — The Origin of the Dunker Organization 51 

Chapter IV. — Development and Close of Movement in 

Europe 63 

Part II. The Dunkers in America. 

Chapter I. — Social Conditions in America bearing on Pop- 
ulation 98 

1. Political Conditions in America, with Special- 
Reference to Pennsylvania , 98 

2. Economic Conditions in Pennsylvania 92 

3. Religious Conditions in Pennsylvania 99 

4. Influence of these Conditions on Demotic Com- 
position of the Population in Pennsylvania 103 

Chapter II. — The Early History of the Dunkers in Amer- 
ica: Sociological Interpretation 107 

1. Origin of the Dunker church in America 107 

2. Conrad Beissel and his Influence on the Devel- 
opment of the Dunker Church 112 

a. Early Period : To his Separation from the 
Dunkers. . 112 

b. Later Period: BeissePs Separate Commu- 
nity , 126 

Chapter III. — The Expansion of the Dunkers in America. .. 142 
Chapter IV. — The Unification of the Dunkers after their 

Expansion in America 161 



CONTENTS 

1. The Social Population. 

2. The Social Mind. 

3. The Social Organization. 

Chapter V. — The Liberalization of the Dunkers. 185 

Chapter VI. — Present Conditions in the Dunker Church. . .200 

1. Numbers 200 

2. The Social Mind of the Dunkers 203 

3. The Social Organization of the Dunkers 220 

Chapter VII.— Conclusion 226 

Bibliography 236 

Vita ..239 



PREFACE. 



This paper is an attempt to apply the principles of sociological 
theory to the interpretation of the denomination of Christians 
variously known in early history in Germany, sometimes as 
Pietists, because most of them had originally been Pietists , of- 
ten as Anabaptists because they baptised those who had been 
christened when infants, or, again, as Dompelaers, from the fact 
that their mode of baptism was immersion. Today they are pop- 
ularly known by the various names, Dunkards, Dunkers, Tunk- 
ers, but among themselves as Brethren, or officially as German 
Baptist Brethren. Their popular cogneman today, Dunkers, is 
simply the anglicised form of the German noun, derived from 
the old German verb "tunken", to dip, which corresponds to the 
modern German verb "tauten," and means what our anglicised 
Greek word "baptists" means. By their very name, therefore, 
the Dunkers are to be classed as baptists. 

From the sociological standpoint they must be classified as a 
voluntary, cultural association, whose purpose was the promotion 
of certain doctrines and customs. It was one of the constituent 
societies of the larger, half feudal, half civil, social unit, the 
province of Wittgenstein. Therefore, from the, standpoint of 
the historical study of society, the Dunker church belongs to 
that stage called civilization, or Demogenic Association, as Pro- 
fessor Giddings has called it. Its origin lay within the military- 
religious subdivision of that stage, the greatest part of its his- 
tory within the subdivision called the liberal-legal, and the latter 
part within the economic- ethical. Nevertheless, within these nar- 
row limits historically, the Dunker church represents in its his- 



6 PREFACE 

tory all the steps found in the development to be observed in the 
evolution of any society. 

The method of approach might have been strictly sociological, 
were it not for the fact that the Dunker church began its devel- 
opment in Europe, but was interrupted in its history there, and 
had to start again from the beginning in America. Therefore, 
the study of the movement in Europe will be largely a study of 
social origins, and only in a minor degree of social development. 
On the other hand, while the origin of the movement in Ameri- 
ca must be noticed, because it originated there independently of 
the movement in Europe, the major part of attention will be 
given to the steps in the evolution of the Dunkers in social popu- 
lation, social mind and social organization. 

The multiplication of the Dunker population from a small 
company of discouraged members fleeing from the evil conditions 
in Crefeld, Prussia, and settling in (jermantown, Pennsylvania 
and vicinity, to a great company of more than one hundred 
thousand people, and its expansion from the eastern part of 
Pennsylvania along the natural routes of travel into all the agri- 
cultural parts of the United States will be traced, and the causes 
noticed. 

Then the evolution of the social mind of this sect will be 
traced from the mental and practical resemblance that was based 
upon the like response to stimulus, which living under similar 
circumstances in Germany had produced, on through concerted 
volition, which resulted in the purposive organization. 

Then, the evolution of the organization will be traced from 
the first spontaneous association of the simplest kind up through 
the various stages of development that led to a firmly compacted 



PREFACE 7 

organization with an increasingly complex composition and a 
clearly defined constitution. 

Lastly, the influence upon them in every way of the demo- 
cratic society in which the Dunkers found themselves, as the 
country developed about them and population increased, and 
democratic ideas were disseminated, will be noticed. 

In the last chapter a summary of the processes described in 
the previous chapters, will be made. 

Besides the particular acknowledgments made in the foot notes 
and the bibliography, I wish to acknowledge special indebtedness 
to Professor Giddings, for help and inspiration received from his 
books and from lectures in Columbia University; to Professor Rob- 
inson for kindly criticisms on certain portions of the paper; to 
Professor McGiffert of the Union Theological Seminary for help 
received from his lectures on the period of church history in 
which this study falls; to Professor Martin Grove Brumbaugh, of 
the University of Pennsylvania for valuable suggestions as to 
sources and literature on the history of the Dunkers; and to Pro- 
fessor L. L. Garber, Professor of English in Ashland College, 
Ashland, Ohio, who has read the paper in manuscript, and given 
me the benefit of his good judgment on matters of literary form 
and statement. 



PART I THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 



CHAPTER I 
Histokical Introduction 

Long before the time of which history gives us any 
definite knowledge, various races of men had been meet- 
ing, perhaps mingling, in the valley of the Rhine. In- 
vestigations in ethnology and anthropology have given us 
hints of great prehistoric movements in western Europe, 
which resulted in the congregation there of several dif- 
ferent kinds of people. It was a movement similar, in 
many ways, to the later barbarian migrations. 

There are evidences that the neolithic population of, 
at least, western Europe was composed of what is known 
as the Eurafrican race, which, Sergi thinks, originated in 
Africa and spread over Europe, but which, others think, 
originated in Europe, and thence spread across to Africa. 
This Eurafrican race was differentiated into two branch- 
es, the Mediterranean and the Baltic, both longheaded, 
but the one dark and the other light, the one having 
spread over southern and western, and the other over 
northwestern Europe. * 

Some time later a wedge of population, Aryans in lang- 
uage and culture, but mainly Eurafrican in physical type, 
with its base in Russia and its point in the British Isles, 
pushed itself through between the Mediterranean and 
Baltic branches of the Eurafrican race, and imposed its 
language and culture upon the people in its path, or 
drove them to the fastnesses of the mountains. 

* Sergi, "The Mediterranean Race," passim. 



10 THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE. 

It is probable that a second wave of Aryan people swept 
over this first one, but with its main direction further 
north, creating the Scandinavian speech and culture, but 
probably affecting the population of the Rhine valley only 
slightly. 

Later still there was a third invasion of Eurafrican 
Aryans, who imposed their language and culture upon 
the population they found, and possibly amalgamated with 
the Euraf ricans with which they came in contact in the 
Rhine countries. These spread throughout the region 
assigned by Caesar to the Celtae, or Gauls, the country 
between the Garonne and the Seine rivers. 

Finally, there was probably a fourth migration of Ar- 
yans, Eurasian in physical type, who spread west from 
Hallstatt throughout the region between the Rhine, on 
the one hand, and the Marne and Seine, on the other, 
which was assigned by Caesar to the Belgae. This peo- 
ple had become mixed, to a certain extent, with the Ger- 
manic peoples beyond the Rhine. * 

By Caesar's time there were four distinct kinds of peo- 
ple in western Europe, the Aquatani, southwest of the 
Garonne river, the Belgae, northeast of the Marne and 
the Seine, the Celtae, between them, and the Germani, to 
the east of the Rhine, t These represented the various 
peoples, spoken of above, that had swept in from the east 
and south one after the other, and which formed the basis 
of the modern populations of western Europe. 

According to Tacitus, some of the Germans, before 
his day, had crossed the Rhine into Gaul. At that time 
probably they had extended east to the Vistula. The 
boundary between the Germans and the Roman provinces 

* Isaac Taylor, "Origin of the Aryans," Chap. 2. 
t "Gallic War," 1: 1. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 11 

was the Rhine and the Danube. * The tribes of the 
Germans, as the people east of the Rhine were called, 
pressed by the Slavic peoples to the east, or moved there- 
to by the growth of population within their own borders, 
surged out over the borders into the Roman provinces, 
south and west, for centuries. On the other hand, both 
Caesar and Tacitus tell us of migrations of tribes that 
lived west of the Rhine bo regions east of that river. 
These movements made the population of the Rhine dis- 
tricts very complex. During the barbarian invasions of 
the Roman Empire this complexity was still further 
complicated, t 

Step by step, owing to pressure of foreign foes and the 
pressure of their own population, the tribes were con- 
solidated into confederacies, or leagues, temporarily, 
for the most part, for the purposes of defence, until in 
the fifth century, under the leadership of the Franks, the 
various tribes east and west of the Rhine were united 
into a single nation, which, with various vicissitudes of 
fortune, continued for a number of centuries. The Holy 
Roman Empire, which developed out of the Frankish 
kingdom, continued to be the one bond of political unity 
that held together the small states that had grown up on 
the basis of the former tribal divisions. 

One must not conclude, however, that the political un- 
ity acheived through the extension of the Frankish rule, 
or the Holy Roman Empire, served to effect the amalgama- 
tion of the various elements within them, to any great 
extent. For on the whole, the characteristics of the rac- 
es that occupied western Europe in the days of Caesar 
and Tacitus can be traced in the peoples that dwell to- 

* "Germania," 1. 

t On the whole subject in detail see Mommsen, "History of Rome," 
Eng. trans. 4: 255 f. 



12 THE D UNKERS IN EUROPE. 

day in their respective regions. * Naturally, therefore, 
in the Rhine valley, the Celt and the Teuton existed, as 
they still exist, side by side. They were never fused in- 
to a new type, as were the Teutonic Saxons and the Celts 
of Britain by the coming of the Danes. 

Furthermore, the inhabitants of the Rhine valley were 
not permanently united even politically. The strong 
Frankish kingdom did not hold together long enough to 
completely socialize the component peoples. With the 
accession of a line of weak kings, and the rise of feudal- 
ism it broke up into many fragments. Throughout the 
Middle Ages western Europe was practically a political 
chaos. The Protestant Reformation made more complete 
the political disintegration of the already tottering Holy 
Roman Empire by further accentuating the social heter- 
ogeneity. With the exception of France, there was no 
strong nation in western Europe down to the time of Na- 
poleon, f 

Thus, the races that had come into southwestern Ger- 
many had never been fused into a single people. Polit- 
ical, economic and religious conditions at the beginning 
of the eighteenth century reflected the social heterogene- 
ity of the population of those regions considered as a 
whole. 

The nature of the population determined the nature 
and development of the social mind. If into any popula- 
tion there has entered a variety of elements, the social 
mind cannot be the same as in a population of no, or only 
slight, admixture. 

It is generally recognized that the Celtic type of mind 
differs from the Teutonic. Instead of being fused into 

* Ripley, "Races of Europe," Chaps. 6, 18. 

f Robinson, "History of Western Europe," p. 148 f ; Bryce, "Holy Roman 
Empire," p. 14 f, edition of 1904. 



HISTORICAL INTROD UCTION. 13 

a new type, as they were in England under the influence 
of the Dane, here in the Rhine valley we find them both, 
side by side, just as we saw the two races were there in 
close proximity, without having been amalgamated into a 
demotic unity. 

In like manner, the different varieties of social mind 
among the Teutonic tribes in western Germany were not 
completely fused. Even to this day there is the type of 
mind characteristic of the Swiss German, the Bavarian, 
the Saxon, the Prussian, etc. Thus, there was a differ- 
ence of social mind among the elements of the population 
of southwestern Germany as a whole, analogous to the 
difference in race. 

All these different tribes and races responded to stim- 
ulus in much the same way. The migrations show this, 
as well as many of their common customs. Yet, even 
here there was a difference between the Celts and the 
Germans. 

In mental and practical resemblance they were less 
alike. For example, the various German tribes respond- 
ed more slowly in motor reactions than the Celtic* Their 
emotional qualities, intellectual processes, types of dis- 
position and of character were different in the two peo- 
ples, f To a less degree this was true of the various 
subdivisions of the same race. It is most significant 
that the Reformed religion won in just that part of Ger- 
many that had the largest admixture of Celtic blood, — 
along the Rhine from Switzerland north, — while the Luth- 
eran obtained its hold on the more thoroughgoing Teu- 
tons. The Reformed faith was more logical. Its propo- 
sitions were the outcome of deductive reasoning to a 
greater degree than the Lutheran. On the other hand, 

* Caesar, "Gallic War," 2: 1; 3: 10, 19; 4: 5, 13, etc. 

t Ibid, 1: 1, 30, 31, 40, especially, 6: 11-24; Cf. Tacitus, "Germania," 28 f. 



U THE D TINKERS IN EUROPE. 

the Lutheran faith, as interpreted by Luther, was a re- 
ligion rather than a theology, and its theological state- 
ments were the result of an inconsistent compromise be- 
tween Catholic and strictly Protestant elements, based, 
not on the logical requirements of its premises, but up- 
on the practical necessities of political and ecclesiastical 
policy. 

Furthermore, it was in the Reformed Church, for the 
most part, that the sects arose. The cold logic of its 
theological positions made it impossible for that church 
to tolerate the sectarians. 

Moreover, the Celts and the Germans recognized the 
fact that they were different. If evidence of this is 
required, it is to be found in the wars that the Germans 
and the Belgae, on the one hand, and the Germans and 
the Helvetii, on the other, were continually waging against 
each other daring the Roman occupancy of Gaul. * These 
differences and the mutual recognition of them by each 
race continued down to our period, owing to the fact that 
there was no strong political and social agency to 
accomplish the assimilation of the two elements. The 
continuance of petty states, instead of the consolidation 
of them into a political unity, the constantly disturbed 
conditions of society in these regions, the lack of good 
means of communication and the mutual jealousies of 
rival princes and parties, ecclesiastical and political, 
made for the continuance of a clearly recognized con- 
sciousness of kind. 

Naturally, concerted volition, the condition of mind 
prerequisite to co-operation, was impossible, except on a 
few lines, among the people of southwestern Germany at 
the close of the seventeenth century. It required the 
stimulus of a great common danger, such as the tyranny 

*Caesar, "Gallic War," 1:1, 30, 31, 40. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 15 

of Ferdinand II, or the oppression of Louis XIV, to bring 
them to a common purpose. Thus, the evolution of the 
social mind of southwestern Germany, as a whole, was not 
far advanced. Even in each state it had not progressed 
beyond the stage of formal likemindedness. 

In like manner, the social organization of the people in 
the Rhine valley in Germany was incomplete. As there 
was no developed social mind in that region considered 
as a whole, so there was no all-inclusive social organiza- 
tion. There was but a chaos of petty states nominally 
united under the Holy Roman Empire. The consolida- 
tion of the states of the region occurred as late as 1870. 

Moreover, in each state the organization had developed 
only as far as might be expected from the description 
given of the development of a social mind. 

Where likemindedness is sympathetic, or formal, 
rather than rational, and where, consequently, the social 
action is impulsive, whatever social organization exists 
is coercive in its relation to the individual. This gener- 
alization is well illustrated in the social organization at 
this time. Prussia, the Netherlands, and Wittgenstein 
were the only states that allowed freedom of organization 
and individual liberty of religious opinion. Only such 
religious organizations were permitted in other parts of 
the country as were not at variance with the religion of 
the state. A coercive attitude was assumed by most 
rulers towards the individual and each constituent 
society. The task at hand was to unify the discordant 
elements of the population. The governing classes were 
trying to unify their society by enforcing uniformity in 
religion and politics. It was this coercion in religion 
that gave birth to the sectarian movements. For- 
getting the interests of the governed, and imagining 
that their own interests must be the interests of all, the 



16 THE D TINKERS IN E JJR OPE. 

rulers forced a reaction against their policies by the 
coerced classes, who were just now coming to a conscious- 
ness of their rights. 

Such was the condition of society in the upper part of 
the Rhine valley, as a whole, in the period in which this 
study falls. The population was made up of elements 
that had come down from earlier times, which had never 
been amalgamated into a racial unit. The social mind of 
the region as a whole existed only in its elements. There 
was very little common social purpose, and the only 
semblance of a social organization was the Holy Roman 
Empire. Of social organizations of a smaller scope there 
was a multitude. But these had not developed any 
further than the military- religious stage of civilization. 
This monograph therefore, is a study of the origin and 
development of a constituent society in an integral society 
that had arrived at the stage of development known as the 
military-religious stage. 

In order to understand the early development of this 
society it will be well to look more carefully at some of 
the social conditions that prevailed in the Rhine Valley 
at the time of its origin. 

Three phases of these conditions were of special im- 
portance: (1) the reaction against the Protestant scho- 
lasticism of the period; (2) the general character of the 
sects of that time; and (3) the local conditions which 
existed in the Rhine-lands and stimulated emigration. 

1. The Reaction Against Scholasticism. 

Out of the conflicts of the Reformation two distinct 
tendencies emerged among the Protestants. Both were 
found in the Catholic church before Luther ; both were to 
be found even in Luther himself. The one was the 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 17 

scholastic, the other the mystical. The latter became 
identified with Pietism in our period, while the former 
was characteristic of the Lutheran and Reformed ortho- 
doxy. Luther's theory of justification by faith is any- 
thing but scholastic. But, strange to say, Luther, 
especially in his later days, laid himself open to the 
charge of confusing correct doctrine with faith. He 
does not explicity identify saving faith and orthodoxy, 
but in order to oppose successfully the claims of the 
Catholics in regard to the authority of tradition, he was 
led to emphasize the authority of Scripture, and, in order 
to defend himself, on the other hand, against the "fanat- 
ical" claims of the extremists among the Protestants, he 
felt it necessary to oppose to their claims the Bible as 
the standard of doctrine. " :f This was the easier for him 
to do, because apparently he was not conscious that in 
so doing he was giving utterance to anything inconsist- 
ent with his oft-repeated assertion that the Word of God 
is not a book, but the message of God's forgiving love in 
Christ. Yet from the point of view of his controlling 
principle, this was a mistake, and opened the way for his 
followers to identify correct doctrines with saving faith. 
In the later editions of his Loci Communes, Melancthon 
expresses the same view. It is a well-known fact also 
that each edition of the Loci became more scholastic. 
This scholastic orthodoxy came to official expression in 
the Lutheran church in the Formula of Concord (1577.) 
In the following years such theologians as John Gerhard, 
Calovius and-Quenstedt brought it to its complete develop- 
ment. The Scriptures were no longer, as they were with 
Luther, primarily helps in one's Christian experience, 
but ''''dicta probantia^ for the doctrines as set forth in 
the confessions. Nay, more, they had in themselves a 

*See Luther's Works, Erlangen edition. 7:34 



18 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE. 

magical power, similar to what was* supposed to reside in 
the bread and wine of the Eucharist, viz., the power to 
regenerate the soul of him who read them. * The Form- 
ula of Concord was now looked upon as a complete body 
of divinity, assent to which constituted saving faith. 
The duty of reverent theologians was to comment upon 
it and explain it, but not to change it. For purposes of 
interpretation it stood above the Bible, for it contained 
the complete body of saving truth, while the Bible was 
used only to confirm it by furnishing proof texts, t Thus 
a dogmatism far more narrow and oppresssive than that 
of the Catholic church was fastened upon the Protestants. 

The same thing took place in the' Reformed church. 
It was all the easier there, because Zwingli was a human- 
ist to begin with, and was not so great a religious genius 
as Luther. Little by little the scholastic method had 
been growing in favor with the Reformed theologians. In 
their controversies with the Socinians and the Arminians 
and with the theologians of the school at Samur, they 
pushed their dogmatism to as extreme a form as the 
Lutheran thelogians. All the discussions were scholastic 
in method. This scholastic dogmatism found official 
sanction in the Canons of the Synod of Dort (1619), and in 
the Formula Concensus Helvetica (1675). So it came 
about that henceforth in this branch of Protestantism, 
orthodoxy was considered a condition of salvation. 

The results in both the Lutheran and Reformed church- 
es were the same. Attention was directed to pure doc- 
trine to the partial disregard of the Christian life. The 

* See Dorner's u History of Protestant Theology," Eng. trans. 2:203 f. 

t See especially, Harnack, ''History of Dogma," Eng, trans. 7:168 f. I 
have received the most help on this subject from the unpublished lectures 
of Prof. A. C. McGiffertof Union Theological Seminary, of New York. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 19 

emphasis on orthodoxy served to exhaust in fruitless con- 
troversy energies that should have been applied to quick- 
ening the moral life of the people. It was heresy, not 
lack of spirituality, not immorality, for which men were 
excommunicated. Conduct was less important than creed. 
The natural tendency of this emphasis was to stifle in 
both leaders and people the fresh, evangelical spirit of 
the Reformation. Religious and ethical considerations 
had to give way to the all important question of ortho- 
doxy- If men were good, it was because of other factors. 
Accordingly there resulted a widespread deadness in the 
churches. 

Another result was that Christian love and tolerance 
could not develop. Zeal for orthodoxy had as its corollary 
hatred of heresy and the persecution of heretics. For 
example, because of the slight difference of doctrine be- 
tween them as to the "real presence 1 ' of the body and 
blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Lutherans and the 
Reformed were at emnity at a time when there was every 
reason for them to unite against a common foe. For the 
same reasons unseemly quarrels took place within each 
of the two great Protestant bodies. Within the Luth- 
eran church the Philippists and the strict Lutherans di- 
vided on questions of doctrine, with the result that the 
strict Lutherans drew up the Formula of Concord against 
their enemies the Philippists. Within the Reformed 
church the orthodox party was set over against the Ar- 
minians and the theologians of Samur. Besides these 
main divisions in Protestantism., there were minor ones, 
which stood out with a similar zeal against the claims of 
the orthodox parties. Indeed so important was ortho- 
doxy considered, that persecution became a common oc- 
currence. For no other reason than refusal to assent to 



20 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE. 

certain theological dogmas, thousands of men and women 
were killed as heretics. * 

Against this scholastic theology of the seventeenth 
century two movements developed. The one was Pietism; 
the other Illuminism. With the latter we are not con- 
cerned here, as it was a later development, and did not 
affect the circle of society we purpose to study. On broad 
lines, it may be said that Illuminism was a phenomena of 
the upper classes ; Pietism of the lower. The former was 
the protest of the educated ; the latter of the masses. 
Pietism was the product of the combination of the mysti- 
cal tendency that the Reformation brought over from 
Catholicism, f with the practical, individualistic spirit of 
the Reformation. % It had long been felt by many peo- 
ple that there is something more in religion than a harsh 
and barren dogmatism. This feeling became more mark- 
ed as orthodoxy became more pronounced in the church- 
es. The religious spirit awakened by the Reformation 
could not be satisfied with the intellectualism of the theo- 
logians. 

Moreover, there had been lacking from the very first 
days of the Protestant revolt, both in Germany and in 
Switzerland, parties with strong separatistic leanings. 
These parties found in the scholastic dogmatism of the 
churches additional reasons for separation from them. 
They represented the protest of the people of that day 
against the growing Scholasticism. And when to all this 
is added the influence of the spirit of the modern age, 

* See the accounts of the persecutions of the Mennonites in their great 
"Der Bluetige Schau-Platz, oder Martyrer-Spiegel." In this day it is 
hard for one to believe that good men and women could have been so cruel. 

t Ritschl has the credit of making this clear in his "Geschichte d. Pietis- 
mus." 

% Later it combined with Separatism, which was also a popular movement 
against the scholastic dogmatism of the time. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 21 

the strength of the reaction against Scholasticism is eas- 
ily understood. Scholasticism was mediaeval and its 
presence in the Protestant churches was a survival. It 
satisfied neither the religious, nor the scientific needs of 
the day. Against its pretensions to satisfy the former, 
Pietism and Separatism, in large part, were revolts. 

2. General Character op the Protestant Sects. 

Very early in the history of Protestantism sects had 
begun to appear. In fact, they had existed in Catholic- 
ism before the Protestant revolt. The Protestant sects 
originated partly in reaction against Scholasticism, and 
partly as a result of the belief in the freedom of the in- 
dividual conscience, a belief that was involved in the 
Lutheran Reformation. In the early, period of Protestant- 
ism, the separatists were simply ultra-Protestants. But 
when Scholasticism had fettered the living religious life 
in the Lutheran and Reformed churches, the separatists 
discovered in an emphasis upon conduct, over against the 
emphasis of the orthodox upon dogma, a new and might- 
ier weapon of defense against the attacks of the latter. 
Among these separatistic sects those that have an inter- 
est for us are the Anabaptists of Zurich who organized 
themselves while Zwingli was still alive, under the lead- 
ership of Grebel, Blaurock, Manz and Hubmeier; the 
Mennonites, a group composed of the Anabaptists of the 
Netherlands, who came under the influence of Menno 
Symons after 1536; the Labadists, who derive their name 
from Jean de Labadie, and originated in 1668; the Pietists, 
who were not a sect, but represented a tendency that 
originated with Philip Jacob Spener in 1670, when he 
began to hold in his Lutheran congregation Collegia 
Pietatis, or meetings where simple Bible truths were dis- 
cussed for the purpose of encouraging practical piety; 



22 THE D UNKERS IN E UR OPE. 

the Quakers, ascribing their origin to George Fox an 
English weaver's son, who spread to Holland and Ger- 
many; and, lastly, the Dunkers. 

All of these were Separatists, except the Pietists, and 
consequently were organized bodies. Although their 
principles tended in that direction, in the beginning the 
Pietists were not sectarians, but counted among their 
numbers Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed. Later 
many of these joined the different bodies of separatists, 
while the rest of them united with the state churches. * 

Each of these sects had its own peculiar doctrines, but 
all had certain common characteristics. In general they 
agreed on the following: (1) the rejection of infant bap- 
tism; (2) the necessity of regeneration; (3) the separation 
of the "regenerate" from the "unregenerate" in matters 
of conduct, such as dress, amusements and education; 
(4) emphasis upon practical piety rather than upon cor- 
rect doctrine; (5) opposition to certain policies of the 
state, such as, armed self-defence, the use of the power 
of the state in the interest of the church, the union of 
church and state, the requirement of the state that the 
citizens bear arms, take the civil oath, and hold office 
under the government; (6) opposition to the use of force 
in self defence by the individual; (7) the theory of a 
"Bible-Christianity, " that is, that the organization of the 
church and the life of the individual Christian should be 
modelled upon the Bible, or, as the best interpretation of 
the Bible, upon the organization of the early church, and 
the life of the early Christians; (8) opposition to* the state 
churches on the ground that they were a spiritual "Baby- 
lon. ' ' f These characteristics were in part the result of 

*See "Chronicon Ephratense" Eng. trans, p. 1. 

f All these were not true of Pietism in the days of Spener, and many of 
them were never true of it. Spener often defended the Lutheran church 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 23 

a reaction against the scholastic dogmatism of the church- 
es, in part the result of an extreme radicalism, and in 
part, the result of a reaction against the intolerable social 
conditions about them. These sects were recruited for the 
most part from the lower classes of society, from the com- 
paratively uneducated. Consequently, their doctrines 
have to do more with conduct than with dogmas, and they 
are interested in church organization and church rites 
rather than in theology. * 

3. Conditions in Germany that Favored Emigration.^ 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century conditions 
in the German states along the Rhine favored the emi- 
gration of the lower classes of the population. In the 
contests between France and the other states of Europe, 
with which Louis XIV was engaged in war during most 
of his reign, the Rhine countries were the battle ground. 
Across them marched and counter-marched the contend- 
ing armies. On the one side of them was France, a 
united nation with Louis XIV at its head, a king of no 
mean abilities, and of boundless ambition. On the other 
side was the Holy Roman Empire, so weak that it could 
not be depended on to defend its members against the 
aggressions of Louis, while the individual German states 
were so small that they could not protect themselves. 

Moreover, there was no effective German unity. The em- 
pire was but a loose federation, without efficient common 
tribunals, and without the ability to make the unity effec- 
tive by coercion. There were some three hundred small 

against the charge of being "Babylon," and upheld the claim of the state 
to use its power to defend itself and to help the church. See "Bedencken" 
1:341. Nevertheless, there was present in Pietism the tendency to Separa- 
tism. 

* This was true of the Pietistic movememeDt in general. See Dorner, 
History of Protestant Theology," 2:205 f. 



24 THE BUNKERS IN E UP ORE. 

German states between the Alps and the Baltic, each of 
which was practically independent of the others. Mutual 
jealousies prevented their unification, or even their co- 
operation, except in the presence of a great common 
danger. * They either were at the mercy of a strong 
power, like France, or were mere pawns in the game of 
politics that France and the Empire were constantly play- 
ing. For example, the Palatinate was ravaged by the 
armies of France in 1674 in order to prevent the enemies 
of Louis,— the Elector of Brandenburg and the Emper- 
or, — from using its resources to supply their troops 
against him. In 1680, without further reason than his own 
ambition, Louis seized the free city of Strasburg, and 
took possession of some places in Alsace, Loraine and 
France Comte. In the same year he began that series of 
political crimes that he called "reunions," whose purpose 
was to add to France parts of the territories of these 
Rhine countries. 

In 1685 the Simmern line of Palatinate rulers died out 
with the death of Elector Karl. It was succeeded by the 
Neuburg line in the person of the Elector Philip William. 
This gave Louis an opportunity to interfere iD the affairs 
of the Palatinate. He at once set up a claim for Elizabeth 
Charlotte, a sister of the last Simmern Elector Palatine. 
She had married the Duke of Orleans, the brother of 
Louis XIV, but at the time of her marriage had signed 
away all her feudal rights to the Palatinate, and now was 
most bitterly opposed to the claims made in her behalf by 
Louis. The new Elector was forced to appeal for aid to 
the Empire. The emperor not being able single-handed 
to checkmate Louis, formed the League of Augsburg in 
1686, with himself, the kings of Spain and Sweden, as 

* See Bryce, "The Holy Roman Empire," 1904 ed., p. 394 f. Henderson, 
"A Short History of Germany," 2; 219 f. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 25 

princes of the Empire, the Electors of Saxony and Ba- 
varia, the Circles of Swabia, Franconia, Upper Saxony 
and Bavaria, the Elector Palatine and the Duke of Hol- 
stein as its signers. In 1688 Louis decided to attack the 
Palatinate, and thus strike terror into the hearts of his 
enemies. The devastation of the region was one of the 
most brutal on record. A hundred thousand people were 
forced to leave their homes, large numbers of whom 
perished; more than forty towns and villages were de- 
stroyed, and the fertile Valley was turned into a desert. * 
Periodical devastation of the Palatinate continued until 
Louis made peace at Ryswick in 1697. In this treaty 
there was inserted a clause, since famous a s the 
"Ryswick clause," which resulted in the Protestants 
being despoiled of their churches in the interests of the 
Catholics, and the beginning of religious strife that lasted 
for years. This war was followed by that of the Spanish 
Succession (1701-1713). The Rhine-countries during the 
greater part of these prolonged conflicts, — indeed, since 
the opening of the Thirty Years' War, — were between 
the upper and nether mill-stones. 

Furthermore, the internal political conditions of these 
small German states bore heavily upon the common 
people. In many cases their officials were in the employ 
of Louis XIV, or of some other great potentate. The 
princes for the most part ruled solely with reference to 
their own pleasures, rather than to the welfare of their 
subjects. The taxes levied upon the peasants were so 
burdensome that they could scarcely make a living, while 
the ruler lived in a luxury patterned after that of the 
French court. There was no such thing as political 
liberty in the modern sense. The people had no part in 

* See Dyer and Hassel, "Modern Europe," 4:55 f. And especially Haeus- 
ser "Geschichte d. rheinischen Pfalz." 2:766 f. 



26 THE D UNKERS IN EUROPE 

the government. Feudalism had broken down, but no 
strong government had yet risen to reduce the chaos to 
order, and to lay the foundations of political liberty. 

The political situation was complicated by the intimate 
relation of the state and the church. Since the Peace of 
Augsburg (1555), in theory the religion of the prince had 
determined the religion of the country. This gave rise 
to many political disturbances. The strife between Cath- 
olics and Protestants was still keen. Each side was con- 
stantly looking for an opportunity to make inroads into 
the territory of the other. The religious situation was 
complicated further by the fact that there was the same 
reciprocal hostility between the Lutherans and the Cal- 
vinists as existed between the Protestants and the Cath- 
olics. The Palatinate had been Lutheran until Freder- 
ick III, (1559-1576), joined the Reformed church. His 
successor, Louis VI., (1576-1583), reintroduced the Luth- 
eran faith, while John Casimir, (1583-1592), was Reform- 
ed. The Neuburg line (1685-) was Catholic. Up to this 
time the Palatinate had been a refuge for the persecuted 
elsewhere. * The first elector of the Neuburg line, Phil- 
ip William, was tolerant in religion, but he was unable to 
preserve his Protestant subjects from the intrigues of 
the Catholics. His son and successor, John William, was 
under the influence of the Jesuits, and began a systemat- 
ic oppression of the Protestants, which ended in the 
Catholics getting possession of most of the Protestant 
churches and in their driving the greater part of the 
Protestant people into exile. The same policy was adopt- 
ed by the next Elector, Charles Phillip (1716-1742). f 
These rulers were simply following the fashion set by 

* Kuhns, ' 'German and Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania," Ch. 1 gives 
a very good outline of the religious conditions in the Palatinate at this time. 

f For details see Haeusser, "Geschiehte d. rhein. Pfalz." 2: 786 f. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 27 

Louis XIV. His persecutions of the Huguenots had 
forced more than two hundred thousand to emigrate. In 
all these small states, opposition to the orthodoxy of the 
Lutheran and Reformed churches had resulted in the 
formation of sects which were persecuted by the rulers 
at the instance of the national churches. 'For example, 
the Swiss Mennonites, who had enjoyed toleration with- 
in the Palatinate up to the time of the Catholic Neuburg 
rulers, were now forced to flee. These persecutions in 
the states along the Rhine stimulated emigration among 
the persecuted. They made settled and quiet industry 
impossible. Life was insecure, employment precarious, 
and suspicions were rife. These persecutions had made 
the hostility between the classes of society more marked, 
and destroyed that feeling of unity which makes people 
strong, and holds men to their native land. In the per- 
iod of Huguenot persecutions, many of the latter had 
found religious liberty in Prussia, England and America. 
This emigration had set the example that was soon to be 
imitated by many other sects. As early as 1683, the per- 
secuted Mennonites had begun to migrate to Penn's New 
Colony. Already in 1677 Penn had been on the Continent 
in the interests of the Quakers. From 1683 he and his 
agents were at work in the states along the Rhine, ad- 
vertising the religious freedom of his colony. In this 
way the influence of persecution in stimulating emigra- 
tion was supplemented by the positive inducement of the 
promises of religious liberty in the New World. 

These political and religious conditions made economic 
distress inevitable. The constant wars had drawn off 
the men from industry to battle. Some never returned ; 
some were disabled for life. The devastation of the Pala- 
tinate in 1688 had made a hundred thousand beggars, and 
ruined the industry of the country for years. The Pala- 



28 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

tinate is only the most notable example of what happened 
all along the Rhine valley. * Commerce was dead, for 
war severed the trade routes, and industry was at a stand- 
still. Agriculture was a long time in recovering. The 
peasantry was burdened with most< oppressive taxes, 
and in addition subjected to feudal services, f Further- 
more, there had been a series of bad crops, and the hard 
winter of 1708 killed the vines. 

Altogether the situation in the Rhine countries at the 
opening of the eighteenth century was such as to promote 
the emigration of the lower classes. Unstable political 
conditions, religious intolerance, economic disasters at 
home, and glowing promises of a land where all these 
conditions were reversed had the effect of loosening the 
ties that bound the Germans to their native land, and of 
stimulating that passion for wandering that has been so 
often noticed as a characteristic of this people, in spite 
of their intense love of home and Fatherland. 

*See the evidences in Sachse, "The Fatherland," in Pennsylvania Ger- 
man Society Proceedings, 7: 124. 

f See Kuhns, "German and Swiss Settlements, etc." p. 20. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Dunkers' Doctrines: 2 Their Origin. 

The Dunker church was organized to realize certain 
ideals that had taken shape in» the mind of Alexander 
Mack. This organization^made necessary the further 
development of certain doctrines and the modification of 
the reasons for holding the original doctrines. That is to 
say, the composite|nature of the population of southwest- 
ern Germany, determined the origin of certain doctrines, 
which, from the nature of the circumstances that sug- 
gested them, had to do with church and state. That fact 
determined that the ideals should be social in their nature. 
In turn these ideals made it necessary to have a society 
in which they could be realized. G However, no sooner did 
such a society/ exist, than there arose the] necessity 
of defending its existence, and of unifying its mem- 
bership upon a policy and a faith. These exigencies 
demanded for the society an organic and statute law, 
the authority of which was unquestioned by oppon- 
ents, and which could serve as the basis of unification 
for the society. This law was found in the Scriptures of 
the New Testament interpreted by the history of the primi- 
tive church, as that history was then understood. The 
necessity of defending the doctrines held in opposition to 
those of the state churches, and of unifying the new soci- 
ety made necessary the tremendous emphasis upon obedi- 
ence that is the Alpha and the Omega of Mack's thought. 
Therefore, in order to account for the origin of the Dunk- 
er church it will beg necessary to understand how the 
ideals that demanded its existence came into being. 

(a) The Doctrines: 

What, then, were these doctrines? Naming them in the 
order of their probable origin they were as follows: — 



30 THE D UNKERS IN E UR OPE 

1. The Christian life is not an unethical life of correct 
opinion on matters theological, but a life of piety, i. e., of 
good works, begun by obedience to the command of Christ 
to be baptized, or, at least, the wish to obey that com- 
mand. Baptism is followed by regeneration. This life 
of piety is continued by obedience to all the command- 
ments of Christ. Here Mack, the only Dunker writer 
from the early period, does not define closely. 

2. This position naturally includes the Dunker doc- 
trine of simplicity of life, especially of dress. 

3. The doctrine of Christian perfection was not held as 
firmly by Mack as by Hochmann and many others of his 
friends. However, he believes in it as a dogma taught 
by Scriptures.* 

4. Marriage is permitted by God, but it is a lower es- 
state than celibacy. 

5. The church is a holy institution composed of those 
who have been regenerated and who manifest it by obed- 
ience to all the commandments of Christ. 

6. The means whereby the church shall be preserved 
a holy institution of pious people is the Ban, as described 
in Matthew 18. 

7. The ministry of this church is composed of men hav- 
ing Scriptural qualifications, chosen from its ranks by the 
congregation under the direction of the Holy Spirit. 
They should not be highly educated. 

8. The initiatory rite of the church is baptism of adults 
only, by a threefold immersion in water. This involved 
the rejection of infant baptism and also of any mode oth- 
er than a trine immersion. 

9. Tlie Lord's Supper is for those only who have shown 
by a pious life of obedience to Christ that they are regen- 
erate. It is a full meal eaten in the evening, instead of a 

* See "A Plain View, etc." Question 32. 



THE DUNKERS' DCCTRI1SES 31 

morsel of bread and a sip of wine taken in the forenoon, 
and includes, besides the Communion, the rite of Feet 
Washing, in obedience to Christ's commandments in John 
13. 

10. The organic law of this church is the Scripture, es- 
pecially the New Testament. This contains full and 
complete provisions for the organization and rites of the 
church. It also contains the statute law of this society, 
the church, obedience to which law is the condition of 
membership. Therefore, the supreme duty of the Chris- 
tian is obedience to all the commandments of Christ. 

11. The state is the institution ordained of God for the 
exercise of such powers of government as do not interfere 
with the conscience of each individual under its jurisdic- 
tion. Here the doctrine is entirely negative. 

12. The doctrine of the state gave them the negative 
doctrine of JVon-Besistance; i. e., refusal to bear arms in 
defence of one's country. Later it was extended to in- 
clude refusal to protect one's self against violence. 

13. The doctrine of the state also logically included the 
Dunker doctrine of refusal to take a civil oath. 

These doctrines, noted individually above in order to 
show the probable order of their genesis, and to call 
attention distinctly to each point emphasized, may all be 
included either under three heads, viz., (1) the doctrine 
of the Christian life, (2) the doctrine of the church, (3) 
the doctrine of the state; or, even under two, (1) the ideal 
of society, and (2) the ideal of membership in that society. 

With these conceptions dominant in Mack's thought 
there was but small place for strictly theological doc- 
trines. What he had were survivals for the most part. 
At a few points they touched his conceptions as deter- 
mined by his ideal of society. Thus, Mack's conception 
of the Gospel, the Christian life, and Sin were the result 



32 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

partly of his early training and partly of his dominating 
conception of the ideal Christian society, and therefore 
they had assumed a prominence not accorded to other 
theological doctrines, equally familiar to him. But Mack, 
and with him the Dunkers, were not theologians. Their 
interest was practical and ecclesiastical, not speculative. 

God was thought of as the great lawgiver and judge. 

The Gospel was conceived of as the revelation of the 
Christian law. 

The Christian Life was one of strict obedience to the 
Christian law. As he conceived it therefore, man is on 
probation; he is not saved in the present, but is being 
tested to see whether he shall finally be saved. 

Faith and love were simply obedience to the law. 

Man was created sinless, but became corrupt through 
the fall of Adam. But man's will has not been impaired 
so that he is unable to choose the good. By obedience he 
can purify himself from this corruption. 

Mack's conception of sin is not clear. He does not 
define "corruption". But from the fact that he says 
that infants who die without baptism are saved by the 
merits of Christ; that man became "corrupt" and "un- 
clean" through the disobedience of Adam; that he cannot 
re-enter paradise until "purified" by Christ, and that 
what man needs is regeneration; it seems that he means 
metaphysical corruption. On the other hand, when he 
says of the effect of the Fall of Adam on man, that "man 
became puffed up and in his own conceit, desired great- 
ness and power", and, that man can purify himself from 
this depraved condition by obedience to God's commands 
and by submitting his reason to the will of God, it seems 
that he means by "corruption" only ethical, personal 
guilt. Evidently Mack had no clear conception of sin. 
He used terms that show he was inconsistent. However, 



THE DUNKERS' DOCTRINES 33 

it is quite clear from the fact that he had but small place 
for the work of Christ, that the ethical conception is the 
one that controlled him. Obedience is the all important 
duty, as he saw it. 

Salvation is future. By continued obedience to God's 
law, man finally shows himself worthy of salvation. If 
faithful to the end, he will be saved in heaven, the glories 
of which are described in a very materalistic fashion. 

The only important points in Mack's eschatology are 
his belief that Jesus is soon to apper as judge and king, 
and that lost men are finally to be restored. However, 
it should be said that Mack does not believe in the thous- 
and years' reign, a belief current in certain Anabaptist 
circles, and he thinks that the doctrine of final restora- 
tion of the lost should not be preached to sinners. 

It should be noticed in this connection that the Dunkers 
put all the emphasis of their thought, not upon these 
theological doctrines, but upon the doctrines that had 
risen in protest against the life and practices of the 
orthodox churches. Hence, what the Dunkers called 
"doctrines" were not doctrines in the strict theological 
sence at all. They were, for the most part, protests 
against abuses that had grown up in the practical and 
ecclesiastical spheres of life. In other words, they were 
social in their nature. They had to do, not with dogma, 
but with conduct. They related, not to speculative 
thought, but to life, and church organization and rites. 

(b) Their Origin: 

The doctrines of the Dunkers were the result of their 
reaction upon the conditions of life and the facts of 
experience. We shall be able to understand better the 
genesis of the doctrines of the Dunkers, if we look first 
at the origin of the more general sectarian principles. 

The complexity of the social composition mentioned 



34 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

above gives us the starting point of our exposition. The 
material environment had determined a composite popu- 
lation in most of the states of southwestern Germany. 
The breach between rulers and ruled, feudal lord and 
serf, pastor and flock was wide. The small courts were 
aping the luxurious court of France. In order to do so, 
the rulers had to make the taxes of the people heavy. 
Both in the getting and in the spending of the money, 
the ruling classes widened the social chasm between 
themselves and their subjects. Naturally the heaviest 
burdens fell upon the humblest class. 

By an unfortunate circumstance, the three tolerated 
religious were identified more or less closely with the 
ruling, instead of with the subject, classes. Most of the 
nobles belonged to the orthodox churches. The pastors 
of these churches were generally looked upon as belong- 
ing to the upper classes. Naturally, the interests of the 
court were the interests of the pastors of the dominant 
churches, for it was to the state that the religious 
authorities had to look for protection from heretics and 
sectarian enemies. 

Another circumstance of the religious situation contrib- 
uted to the social separation of the religious leaders from 
the people. In the period following the Reformation 
under Luther, the energies of the leaders of the tolerated 
religions had been absorbed in theological debate, which 
however, was of interest chiefly to learned men. This 
emphasis upon theology led most pastors, as well as the 
theologians, to neglect that aspect of religion which the 
common people could understand, and in which they 
might have taken an interest ; viz. , the cultivation of the 
religious and moral life. This had two results. Upon 
the less earnest Christians it had the effect of narrowing 
their interests in religion either to a perfunctory cere- 



THE BUNKERS' DOCTRINES 35 

monialism, or to the brutal pleasure of stamping out 
heresy by persecution. Upon the more earnest souls, 
on the other hand, it had the effect of weakening the ties 
that bound them to the church, and of driving them to 
the Bible and extra-ecclesiastical sources for the spiritual 
help they desired. Naturally the former class was the 
larger. These conditions produced a situation in which 
the slightest stimulus was sufficient to provoke a reaction 
by the more serious-minded against the lifeless forma- 
lism and the cold intellectualism of orthodoxy. Such a 
stimulus was at hand in the persecutions of this people 
by the orthdox churchmen. 

Here, then, were in conflict two ideals, which at bottom 
were the outgrowths of a social difference in the popula- 
tion. The one ideal was that presented by orthodoxy 
with its harsh intolerance of anything that suggested 
heresy. This,- for the most part, was the ideal of the 
upper social classes. Over against this was set the ideal 
of the more serious-minded part of the Christian pop- 
ulation. This party consisted mostly of members of the 
lower classes of society. Again, within each of these 
parties were infinite gradations due to unequal response 
to the ideal, or to the presence of a slightly modified ideal. 
To this complex situation was due the origin of the many 
sects that characterized this period. They were social 
organizations formed by a like response to certain doc- 
trines. The doctrines were the result of the conflict of 
diverse elements in a heterogeneous population. The 
heterogeneity was due to the physical character of the 
country. 

These were the social conditions out of which grew, for 
example, the ideals of Hochmann von Hochenau. He 
was only one of a number of men who appeared in that 
part of Germany and in Switzerland with ideals that dif 



36 THE BUNKERS IN EVROPE 

fered from those held by the orthodox churches. He 
here deserves special notice because his case is typical, 
and also because of his relation to Alexander Mack. 
Hochmann had been a student at Halle, where he was 
"awakened" under the influence of the Pietist, Francke. 
Hochmann was one of the most influential of the many 
mystical, separatistic Pietists of the time. He had come 
to Schwarzenau in 1698 because of a severe persecution 
that had broken out in Hesse-Darmstadt and Frankfort 
against the Pietists and the Enthusiasts. Here he lived 
as a hermit in a little hut, from which he would often go 
out upon long journeys to preach. From 1700-1711 he was 
absent on a pilgrimage to western and northern Germany, 
"as a preacher of a living, internal, but also separatistic 
Christianity as opposed to external ecclesiasticism (Kirch- 
lichkeit) and dead, orthodoxy. "* On these journeys 
Mack was one of his traveling companions. And from a 
comparison of the teachings of these two men it is easy 
to draw the conclusion that Mack was an apt disciple. 

Hochmann was forced, while in prison at Detmoid in 
1702, to write out for the Count of Lippe-Detmold a con- 
fession of faith. His doctrines according to it may be 
summarized' as follows: (1) Upon the main points of 
Christianity he is in accord with the orthodox faith. 
He believes ' 'in one, eternal, sole, almighty omnipresent 
God, as he has revealed himself in the Old Testament as 
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but in the new 
Covenant as Father, Son and Spirit." About God he 
does "not find it necessary to dispute or criticize very 

*Goebel, "Geschichte d. Christlichen Lebens," Bd 2, s. 818. To Goebel 
more than to any v one else I am indebted for much that is of interest to us 
in the history of this period. Dr. H. G. Brumbaugh drew my attention to 
his importance for "anyone who would understand the conditions of the 
time in which the Bunkers arose. Dr. Brumbaugh's section on Hochmann 
is an excellent epitome of Goebel's chapter. 



THE BUNKERS' DOCTRINES 37 

much," but considers it "better to submit one's self to 
him and experience his inward working, for it is by the 
inward workings that the Father reveals the Son and the 
Son the Father through the mighty workings of the Holy 
Spirit, without whom nothing can be attained in godly 
things. This only is eternal life, that one properly ac- 
knowledge this one God." To show what he means by 
this he says that he believes the "well known Ausellic 
creed."* (2) He believes that "baptism is for adults on- 
ly, since not one word can be found in the Scriptures of 
an express command by God or Christ for the baptism 
of Children." He insists that there should be just as 
plain a command for infant baptism as there was for cir- 
cumcision under the old Covenant. (3) He believes that 
"the Lord's Supper was instituted only for the select 
disciples of Christ, who by the renunciation of all world- 
ly things follow Christ in deed and truth; and not for the 
godless children of the world, who today are admitted to 
the love feast. ' ' (4) He believes in Christian perfection 
(Vollkommenheit). He does not claim to have reached 
perfection, but he believes that "one may be sanctified 
not only forensically, but also perfectly, that is, really, 
(nicht allein gerecht sondern auch vollkommen geheiligt), 
so that no more sin will remain in him. " This he believes, 
because of the testimony of Scripture. "This perfection" 
he explains, "must be effected internally, i.e. mystically, 
within the soul through the Son of the living God, and a 
spiritual image of Christ must be won by us. Where 
this does not occur in this life, men cannot attain unto 
the immediate vision of God — intuition, (Anschauung), 
since without holiness no one can see God, for he who has 
the hope of attaining unto the intuition (Anschauung) of 
God must purify himself, even as he is pure; 1 John 3:3." 

* I am unable to find anywhere any reference to such a creed. 



38 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

(5) He believes that ' 'Christ alone, as head of the church, 
can appoint teachers and preachers, and qualify them for 
their positions. This Christ does through the office of 
the Holy Spirit." (6) He believes that government 
(obrigkeit) is a divine ordinance to which he willingly 
submits in all civil matters, but he refuses to acknowl- 
edge that those who struggle against God's word and 
oppress his conscience have any rightful authority. 
Further, he does "not believe that the essentia magistratus 
politici are necessarily Christian (dass sie ein Christ 
sey), because the Turk and the Pope are true authorities, 
but they are not Christians, and are doomed soon to be 
superceded by the glorious Christ, whose coming is so 
near at hand." (7) He believes in the "final restoration 
of damned men," This he believes, because of the 
Scriptures, and also, because "for one not to believe it 
would reflect on the power of Jesus Christ as Savior." * 

Other beliefs held by Hochmann, which do not appear 
in this confession, were, (1) that all organized churches 
or sects are a Spiritual "Babylon", and that a mystical, 
Pietistical kind of Christian life independent of all organ- 
izations is the kind that pleases God; t (2) that marriage 
is a less holy estate than the celibate life. He taught 
that there are five different kinds of marriage: (a) An 
entirely bestial marriage. This is between two persons 
who are not the children of God. This is an impure 
estate, and cannot be made holy by the external act of 
the minister. By such marriages God' s name is profaned. 
Instead of being married by the religious officials, such 
people should be united only by the civil authorities, (b) 

*For a f acsmile of the Confession together with an English translation see 
Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 75 f . Goebel also gives a part 
of it in his "Gesehichte d. Christlichen Lebens", Bd 2, S. 820 sq. 

t Goebel, 2:818, 819. 



THE BUNKERS' DOCTRINES 39 

An honorable, but yet an entirely heathenish, and impure 
marriage. This sort is not so bad as the first, yet in 
God's sight it is impure, since the parties are not in 
the covenant with God. This sort is by the permission 
of God, as all sinful deeds are, but not by the foreknowl- 
edge and will of God in Christ Jesus. The difference 
between this species and the first mentioned, Hochmann 
does not make perfectly clear. However, the inference 
may be drawn from what he says as to the first kind that 
this second kind of marriage differs from the first in that 
it is not entered into by the persons concerned, from 
purely carnal motives, (c) A Christian marriage, in which 
both parties are Christians, and whose purposes are not 
impure, but that they may have children for the glory of 
God. (d) A virginal marriage, in which two persons 
wholly betrothed and devoted to God and the Lamb 
become united with one another in the very purest, 
virginal love of Christ for no other purpose than that 
they may serve God in Christ without intermission, and 
in the pure, clear love-spirit of Jesus may be united to 
the eternal bride-groom of the soul, that they may be 
helpful to each other in such holy union of love unto per- 
fect salvation by fighting the fight of faith together and 
striving together in united prayers, and then may render 
some assistance to each other according to the necessities 
of this life here on earth. As examples of such he cites 
instances given in Gottfried Arnold's "Primitive Christ- 
ianity", and also the example of Joseph and Mary. 
This sort, doubtless, was a spiritual marriage. In such 
marriage two persons do not have sexual intercourse, but 
they are married simply for the spiritual advantages 
that comes from companionship. However, Hochmann 
says that they should not live together without a marriage 
ceremony by the proper officials, in order that no scandal 



40 THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE 

may arise, (e) Marriage with Christ alone, the pure 
Lamb. This is the most perfect grade in the married 
state. When a soul betroths itself alone to God and the 
Lamb, and recognizes Jesus alone as its true husband, 
and has thus wholly betrothed and offered itself up as a 
bride to Christ, there the highest grade of glory in the 
Kingdom of Christ will be attained by a soul. * 

This is all the more interesting, because we shall hear 
echoes of it hereafter. Especially significant are his be- 
liefs concerning baptism, the authority of the state, the 
Lord's Supper, Christian perfection, and the offices of 
the Holy Spirit in the choosing of ministers of the Word. 
His position on marriage did not have an abiding influence 
on Mack. His doctrine of final restoration has signifi- 
cance for the earlier history of the Dunker movement, 
but the belief soon died out among them.f 

I have noticed Hochmann's positions thus fully because 
of their influence on Mack, the founder of the Dunkers. 

The rise of the doctrines of the Dunkers is a further 
and better illustration of the working of the social pro- 
cesses just noticed in the explanation of the rise of the 
more general sectarian principles. 

Environment and historial conditions together had pro- 
duced, a mixed and socially diverse population in the 
Rhine countries. There was no place in Europe where 
the conditions were more favorable to heterogeneity. 
The one place in the southern part of that valley, where, 
in 1700, a person was safe from persecution for conscience, 
sake, was Wittgenstein. It was not the most fertile land 
in Europe, but it was as fertile as the adjacent parts, and 
its other advantages offset its economic disadvantages. 
Thus, while it did not possess economic conditions fav- 

*Goebel, 2:822 f. I have translated quite fully and almost literally. 
f'Chronicon Ephra tense," p. 245 f . 



THE DUNKERS' DOCTRINES 41 

orable to a mixed population, the religious conditions 
there favored the assembling of a religious population 
that were in harmony on general principles, while divid- 
ed on certain specific doctrines. The social composition, 
thus brought about, was such that general cooperation 
was possible in only a few matters. The differences, on 
the other hand, among the elements of the population 
were so many, and became so marked on close acquaint- 
ance that differing ideals were bound to appear through 
conflict and selection. For example, those who became 
Dunkers were first Pietists. But the social composition 
at Wittgenstein was such that there was no unity among 
the Pietists upon certain important points, such as, bap- 
tism, the ban, the form of the Lord's Supper and Feet 
Washing. Reacting on these conditions, Alexander Mack 
conceived of a certain definite ideal for the reformation 
of the Christian church. This ideal included the concep- 
tion of specific doctrines as well as a definite programme 
by which the ideal could be realized. It was in response 
to this suggestion and ideal that the Dunker sect took 
form. 

How these doctrines took definite shape in Mack's 
mind remains to be noticed. In general, this occurred 
through a process of conflict and selection. The hetero- 
geneity of the population in Wittgenstein forced upon 
Mack and his fellow believers a recognition of mental and 
practical differences, and of differences of beliefs and 
standards, and compelled them to compare and choose. 
This precipitated a conflict of beliefs and standards, 
which could result only in the birth of new ideals, or in 
the strengtheniag of those already borrowed from an ear- 
lier time. 

Naturally, the first ideals to arise out of this situation 
were negative, for they arose in opposition to the policy 



k2 THE DUNKEB8 IN EUROPE 

of the party in the church socially unlike the Dunkers. 
They were religious, for religion was the predominant in- 
terest of serious-minded men at that time. And they 
were ecclesiastical, rather than theological, for the peo- 
ple, who later became Dunkers, uneducated for the most 
part, had no interests in the speculative questions of the 
day, but were greatly concerned with practical questions 
of church polity, organization and conduct. Moreover, 
the ideals that thus arose in reaction against the policies 
and practices of the state churches, were social in that 
they arose out of social conditions and had to do with so- 
cial organization. In particular these doctrines arose as 
follows: 

The ideal of the Christian life grew up in reaction 
against bad moral conditions that resulted from the 
church's prolonged dogmatic controversies and the con- 
sequent absorption of interest in theological discussions. 
These discussions were not such as to eolist the interest 
of the common people. Since, therefore, they were not 
interested in theology, and since they were a serious- 
minded folk, their interest must have some object. Such 
an object was suggested by the condition of the life and 
conduct of some members of the churches. Thus, the 
ideal of the Christian life that may be called Pietistic 
arose. This ideal was already in existence when Mack 
and others became dissatisfied with the Reformed and 
Lutheran churches. They came to it doubtless through 
a social reaction similar to that just described, and 
adopted it, because it met their needs, and, because it- 
was an ideal held, for the most part, by their own social 
elass. 

The insistance of the Dunkers on plain dress is, in part, 
attributable to their doctrine of the Gospel as the law of 
the Christian life. * In part it is to be explained by their 

* See 1 Tim. 2:9, 1 Pet, 3:3. 



THE DUNKERS' DOCTRINES 4s 

imitation of sects that had preceded them. But, more 
profoundly, it was due to their feeling of unlikeness to 
the people that formed the membership of the tolerated 
churches. On the part of the learned and great, it was a 
period of elegance and over refinement in dress, t 
Ordinary people could not afford to dress in the prevail- 
ing expensive fashion. They naturally felt that when 
wrong views of religion and ethics and a taste for fine 
clothes were combined in the same persons, especially 
when those persons were their persecutors, the elegant 
apparel must be as wrong as the immorality and the perse- 
cuting spirit. 

The ban is similarly to be accounted for. Historically, 
we should say that its adoption by the Dunkers was due 
to, (1) the application of the principle, that life should be 
conformed to the moral ideals of the New Testament. * 
This led naturally, by an interpretation of certain pas- 
sages in St. Paul, to insistance on separation from the 
world, which could be accomplished only by the enforce- 
ment of the ban- Its adoption was due, (2) to historical 
connection with such sects as the Mennonites, who held 
to this doctrine. But more fundamentally, it grew out 
of opposition to the loveless and sometimes immoral lives 
of those members of the Lutheran and Reformed church- 
es by whom the Pietistic sects were persecuted. The 
Dunkers knew that there existed no sympathy be- 
tween themselves and the noble churchmen that oppressed 
them with taxes and rents, who cared nothing for the 
welfare of the poor, when their own interests were at 
stake, and who lent the power of the state to the persecu- 
tion of their humbler brethren. Especially alien to them 
were the clergy, educated, sound in doctrine, but often 

*For example, Rom. 12:2, Mt. 18:15—18. 

tSee Schultz, "Das Haeusliche Leben im Mittelalter, etc." S. 221 sq. 



U THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE 

un-Christian in life, interested in theological disputes 
rather than in the spiritual welfare of their people, hating 
those who were not members of their church, salaried 
from the oppressive taxes levied upon their poor parish- 
ioners, and often upon those who were not members of 
their flocks, and persecuting with the strong arm of the 
law those whom they could not convince with their logic* 
It is little wonder that the Dunkers called the churches 
to which such men belonged a spiritual "Babylon". It 
was but natural that they insisted on the ban in order to 
prevent their church from having within it such men as 
composed the membership of the churches that persecu- 
ted them. Thus, the ban was f udamentally an expression 
of consciousness of kind, which in turn reflected hetero- 
geneity of the social population. 

The consciousness of kind likewise explains the opposi- 
tion of the Dunkers to a paid and educated ministry. It 
was at the hands of such a ministry, that they had ex- 
perienced their persecutions. Such a ministry, therefore, 
must be wrong. Everything that was connected with 
such a ministry and differentiated it from the Dunkers, 
must have, in their opinion, contributed to make its mem- 
bers godless persecutors. For the most part, the Dunk- 
ers themselves were uneducated, and hence, education 
must have made their persecutors what they were. If 
so, education for the ministry is wrong. 

How shall we explain the mystical and ascetic tendencies 
that characterized the Dunkers in the early period of 
their history? These tendencies, as Ritschl has pointed 
out, had their roots in the Middle Ages. He finds that 
the tendencies present in some of the monastic orders 
bore fruit in Protestantism. He is right when he sees in 
these tendencies a reversion to type. He notes that the 

*See Mack, "A Plain View, etc." p 22, 88, 89. 



THE DUNKERS' DOCTRINES 45 

tendency to mysticism was present in Lutheranism itself. * 
There can be no doubt that the ideal of life held by a 
large element in the Catholic church, expressing itself in 
monastic mysticism, and striving after ecstatic commun- 
ion with God, and that the monastic asceticism that strove 
to find rest and peace in the denial of matrimony and oth- 
er ordinary ways of life, or in the monastic community of 
goods, made a strong appeal to the common people in the 
Protestant churches and sects as well as to those in the 
Catholic church. Especially was this true in an age 
when turbulent passions and changing customs, wars 
and oppressions made men feel that their Helper was 
afar off. These tendencies, appealing to men's desires 
for a short cut out of their miseries, spiritual and mater- 
ial, found ready acceptance in such a time as we are now 
studying. 

But after all this is said, the question that confronts 
us is, Why did men revert to the type? When we examine 
social conditions in periods in which mystical and ascetic 
tendencies were in the ascendant, we find poverty, op- 
pression and great insecurity of life and property. Back 
of these conditions we find heterogeneity of population. 
Mysticism and asceticism have risen in those classes up- 
on whom the burdens of life have pressed most heavily. 
Hence, whether in the first centuries of Christian history 
or in the eighteenth, these features of religious life have 
resulted from the reaction of people upon environment 
created for them b} T complexity of the population. In oth- 
er words, they are social products, f 

It was noticed above that most of the points in the theo- 

* u Geschichte des Pietismus," 2: 3, sq. 

tSee Moeller, "History of the Christian Church," 1:356; Weingarten, 
"Der Ursprung d. Monchthum," ZKG. I. land 4, Goth. 1877; Also in 
"Rael-Encyclopaedie," 10:758 sq. 



46 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

logy of the Dunkers were simply the theology of their or- 
thodox opponents. How did it happen, it may be asked, 
that the Dunkers adopted some of the doctrines of their 
opponents while they dissented from others? Of the be- 
liefs that they had in common with the orthodox churches 
several things are to be observed : (1) These doctrines, 
or beliefs, related to points of theology proper rather 
than to ecclesiastical procedure or matters of practical 
life ; (2) Being theological doctrines, they had compara- 
tively little interest for this untheological people. These 
points of theology had been taught them in their child- 
hood, and, as they had no connection with specific social 
differences, they never became points in dispute. The 
Dunkers, consequently, who were not systematic think- 
ers, simply retained them without examination. (3) These 
doctrines had no connection with their social life, as did 
those points in which they dissented. Therefore, they 
were not forced to reconsider them. (4) They did not 
enter into the ideals, response to which created the Dun- 
ker church. They had no relation to the ideal of a social 
organization. 

The rejection of infant baptism by the Dunkers can be 
explained historically, that is to say, in terms of the 
principle of imitation. Obviously, however, another 
generalization must be invoked to account for the re- 
jection of infant baptism by those who first rejected it, 
and I think also to fully account for its rejection by the 
Dunkers. This other generalization is more fundament- 
al. Those who first rejected infant baptism did so be- 
cause they felt the unlikeness between themselves and 
those that practiced it. Of course, when they had reject- 
ed it, they appealed to Scripture to sustain their conten- 
tion, because all Protestants invoked the binding force of 
the Scriptural text. The case of the Zurich Baptists is 



THE BUNKERS' DOCTRINES 47 

in point. They rejected infant baptism primarily, not be- 
cause they knew of the rejection of i.t by some earlier 
sect, but because they felt that there was a greater like- 
ness between those who refused to practice it than be- 
tween themselves and the Reformed church at Zurich. 
Social conditions first made them different in various 
ways. Then they began to proclaim their views. There- 
upon the main body of the Reformed party, with the aris- 
tocratic element supporting it, felt the difference also, 
and decided it could better afford to cut off the dissenters 
than to alienate "the substantial people." So the dissi- 
dents were cast out.* 

Doubtless, imitation of historical precedents that had 
come to their knowledge, accounts in a measure for the 
rejection of infant baptism by the Dunkers. Imitation 
played a part also in their insistence on a trine immersion 
as the only valid form of baptism, and again in the insist- 
ence of all Baptists on immersion. But it was a second- 
ary, not a primary part. The primary impulse that they 
obeyed was the consciousness of kind, itself the result of 
heterogeneity in the social composition. 

Conditions of life similar to those that surrounded the 
Christians of the early church surrounded them. It was 
the poor that were involved in the movement. They had 
little hope for better things in this world. No more than 
the early Christians did they share in the government. 

On the contrary the government oppressed them. The 
ascendant religions persecuted them. The doctrines, 
held by those who persecuted, that had any relation to 
the oppressions and persecutions, must in the eyes of 
the persecuted be wrong, especially, when the Scriptures 

*See American Journal of Theology, Jan. 1905, where a letter of Grebel, 
one of the leaders of the Baptist party at Zurich, is translated, which sets 
forth this consciousness of a difference. 



48 THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE 

were against the contentions of the persecutors. Such 
were the stimuli that awakened in the Dunkers a con- 
sciousness of kind, and influenced them to imitate the 
doctrines and practices of those to whom they felt them- 
selves socially akin. 

Likewise, conscious uhlikeness to the members of the 
state churches is at the bottom of the Dunkers' doctrine 
of the Lord\s Supper. The first thing that excited their 
opposition to the rite as observed in the tolerated church- 
es was the fact that people of the sort they described 
as "unregenerate" were admitted to the Lord's table. 

Whether such people were not good is beside the ques- 
tion. They were different from the Dunkers socially, i. e. , 
they were of a different social class from that to which 
Mack and his friends belonged, and therefore did not 
live the kind of life that the Dunkers thought they should 
live in order to be recipients of the Lord's Supper. That 
fact led to an interpretation of their conduct that unfitted 
them in the eyes of the Dunkers for participation in so 
sacred a rite. 

Furthermore, when criticism of the rite had once be- 
gun, it was easy to proceed with it further. Conscious- 
ness of kind suggested imitation of the primitive Chris- 
tians in the observance of the rite. That is shown by the 
assertion repeated even to tiresomeness by the Dunkers, 
that they are the true followers of the primitive Chris- 
tians. This imitation gave rise to the positive elements 
in the Dunkers' doctrine of the Lord's Supper. The New 
Testament, as the organic law of their new society, sug- 
gested a full meal eaten in the evening. This was con- 
firmed by the history of the rite in the early church. 

This feeling of likeness to the primitive Christians al- 
so led to the adoption of the rite of Feet Washing accord- 
ing to the practice of the Apostles recorded in Jno. 13, 



THE BUNKERS' DOCTRINES 49 

The commandment of Jesus there, confirmed them in their 
position. 

Their doctrine of the state was an outgrowth of the same 
sort of reasoning. The government had made itself ob- 
noxious to them. On matters which they felt should, on 
Protestant principles, be left to the individual conscience, 
it persecuted them. It was identified with every social 
institution against which they revolted with all the 
strength of their moral natures. 

The reason of the Dunkers' refusal to bear arms, and 
to take oaths lay in a similar opposition to a government 
that oppressed them, as that which provoked resistance 
by the early Christians to war and the use of the oath, 
and also by the Jews in the period preceding the advent 
of Christ.* They were keenly conscious of a difference 
between themselves and the governing class and all per- 
sons that were connected with the latter, f Feeling 
themselves right before God, they necessarily regarded 
as wrong those beliefs and practices of their enemies, 
which were in any way responsible for the harsh conduct 
of the latter towards them. What, then, could be more 
wrong than the state and the clergy, the very instruments 
of their oppression? War mast be wrong, because it was 
the instrument by which innocent and good men were 
made to suffer. 

The oath must be wrong, because it was the sacred in- 
strument of the state, and the state abused the righteous ; 
because it was used by men that hated the just; because 
it was an instrument of evil consecrated by a religious 
sanction. Scripture, of course, became a weapon of de- 
fence. Of all the Anabaptists only those of Muenster be- 
lieved in war. They held to it because of their doctrine 

*See Charles, "Slavonic Enoch" 49: 1, 2. 

fSpener, who never left the Lutheran church, although the leader of the 
Pietiste, believed war God-ordained. See his "Bedencken", 1; 14, 



50 THE D TINKERS IN E UR OPE 

of the present millennial kingdom of Christ on earth. 
Thus, it is clear that the ideals of the Dunkers arose 
out of their recognition of the differences between them- 
selves and their more numerous and more powerful, but 
less pious, opponents. The recognition of these differ- 
ences grew out of conflicts, which were due to differences 
in mental and moral characteristics. These, in turn, 
originated in the diversity of social classes, which, again, 
was due to a mixture of population. But, again, the het- 
erogeneity of social composition resulted from the physi- 
cal nature of the country. Therefore, the ultimate cause 
of the social phenomena that gave rise to the doctrines 
of the Dunkers was the peculiar physical nature of that 
part of Germany in which the sect originated. Had it 
been a secluded region, into which various kinds of peo- 
ple could not go, and where perforce the population must 
have become homogeneous, the sects of German religious 
history could not have risen there. Religious differences 
are due, in the last analysis, to social differences. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Dunker Organization: Its Origin. 

Two circumstances suggested to Mack, his ideal of the 
church viz., that his doctrines demanded an organ of 
concrete expression and that the existing churches were 
hostile to him and his doctrines. 

From the conflict of opinions there had emerged the 
doctrines already described. They related to life, 
organization and conduct, not to pure thought. There- 
fore, to exist simply as doctrines would not do; they must 
have concrete means of expression. Hence, the doctrines 
demanded a social organization for their realization, and 
thus gave rise to a positive ideal of society. Here Mack 
differed from such of his fellow Pietists as Hochmann. 

The circumstance, however, that the existing social 
organizations were hostile to such ideals, and that conflict 
with such organizations had suggested the doctrines, 
demanded the creation of a society to give expression to 
the Dunker ideals. Thus originated the ideal of a social 
organization that was not hostile to the Dunker doctrines. 

Furthermore, the two circumstances named determined 
the nature of the social organization. The former con- 
ditioned the form of the society, in that it must be such 
that it was fitted to realize the ideals that had risen in 
opposition to those of the orthodox Churches. The latter 
determined that it must be different from the organizations 
with which the Dunkers had come into conflict. Naturally 
it would differ from these organizations on the points in 
dispute. Therefore, its conditions of membership, its 
rites, its ministry and its method of organization must 
be different. This gave the new society, as well as its 
doctrines, a decidedly negative tendency. Its laws were 
stringent, but were negative. Its character was stern. 
It was severely protestant. 



52 THE D UNKERS IN E TJR OPE. 

It was said above that the ideal was suggested by con- 
flict. A more detailed description of the social and 
physical conditions that existed in the region where the 
organization originated will show us the cause of the 
conflict. 

The physical features of southwestern Germany are 
such as to favor great complexity of population. It is a 
somewhat mountainous country, yet it is not so rough 
that it forbids easy access through its valleys to all its 
parts. The Rhine valley furnishes a great natural 
channel for currents of migration both from Switzerland 
on the south and from all the countries lying to the north, 
contiguous to the Rhine. Its natural fertility attracted 
a comparatively dense population. It had long been the 
mixing ground for the peoples of Western Europe. Wave 
after wave of migration had swept over it. The result 
was a very composite population. This complexity of 
social composition was partly ethnic, but at the close of 
the seventeenth century it was more largely political and 
social. 

These physical features made it inevitable that it 
should have classes of conqueror and conquered, feudal 
lord and serf, priest and layman, since sufficient time 
had not elapsed to enable the governing classes to unify 
the population completely. 

The broken character of the country, however, also 
provided secluded districts in close proximity to each 
other. A mountain or a river formed a barrier to 
frequent communication in the days before modern means 
of travel had over-come these obstacles to social inter- 
course. This developed diversity of population in the 
country as a whole, while it determined that such secluded 
regions should become homogeneous. Furthermore, 
these physical features determined the small political 



THE D TINKER OB GANIZA T10N 53 

divisions in the period between the break down of feudal- 
ism and the modern period of German unification. They 
had much to do also with the heterogeneity of mental type 
and disposition in Germany as a whole that accounts for 
the turmoil and strife, both political and religious, 
characteristic of the Reformation and Post-Reformation 
periods. 

The physical environment had determined that the 
composition of the population of Wittgenstein, the district 
where the Dunkers originated, should be less complex 
than in some other parts of this valley. Goebel describes 
the region as rough, stony and unfruitful.* It is also a 
district isolated somewhat by mountains. These two 
facts served to repel rather than to attract outsiders to 
its confines. Its unproductiveness and its isolation, 
moreover, had effected a lessening of the distance be- 
tween its rulers and their subjects. In the first place, 
because it was a poor country, it happened that, the 
rulers did not have the splendor that would have separated 
them from their poorer subjects. In the next place, 
isolation prevented the emulation of rulers with a more 
splendid court, and gave time the opportunity to mould 
the rulers and ruled into a social unity. Its meager 
economic advantages and its isolation hindered any 
considerable immigration, so that the population was 
largely autogenous in its origin. These circumstances 
conditioned a homogeneity in the subject population 
itself. 

This homogeneity of the population in Wittgenstein 
explains the religious toleration that was the policy of 
that country at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
and that made it a place of refuge for the persecuted in 

*"Geschichte d. Christlichen Lebens", 2:739. 



5k THE DUNKEBS IN EUROPE 

other places.* For toleration of any sort is possible 
only when the elements of the population have been 
assimilated to an ideal more or less common to them 
all, or when the population is autogenous in its ori- 
gin. In either case the population becomes homogen- 
eous. Religious toleration is dependent on social homo- 
geneity, since religion is only one of the ideals a 
like response to which results in assimilation. 

The religious toleration of Wittgenstein and the intol- 
erance of adjacent districts were stimuli a like response 
to which brought together at Berleberg and Schwarzenau, 
some live or six hundred persecuted Pietists, Separatists, 
Enthusiasts and Mennonites.f 

After these people from different regions had assem- 
bled in Wittgenstein, they found themselves in an entire- 
ly new environment. Secondary stimuli that they had 
not yet encountered, began to work upon them. These 
stimuli consisted of the ideals, programmes of reform, 
doctrines, and methods of the various leaders in the re- 
spective places from which the leaders had come, but 
which had not operated upon those in other places, be- 
cause of the distance by which they were separated and 
lack of communication. Proximity now brought these 
various stimuli into the environment of all those settled 
in Wittgenstein. 

These refugees from persecution in other parts intro- 
duced alien elements into the population of Wittgenstein. 
While on general pietistic principles and social position 
they were one with the population of Wittgenstein, on 
minor religious points they differed from it, and those 

^Besides Wittgenstein, Prussia and the Netherlands were the only 
countries on the Continent where there was religious toleration at this 
time. 

tGoebel, "Geschichte d. Christlichen Lebens," 2:774. 



THE DUNKER ORGANIZATION 55 

from each place differed from the emigrants from every 
other region. This circumstance led to processes of con- 
flict and selection. Men's responses to these diverse 
stimuli were unlike and unequal. Some were prepared 
to respond to a stimulus favorably, others adversely. 
These responses gave rise to the parties in Wittgenstein. 
The unequal responses marked out the leaders and the 
followers. Those that responded most heartily became 
leaders fully possessed by the ideal to which they res- 
ponded favorably. Those that responded less heartily 
became the followers. 

In this environment by a process of selection, Alexand- 
er Mack became possessed of a definite programme for 
the organization of a Christian society differentiated from 
all those with which he was acquainted. This was partly 
the result of his reaction upon his experiences as a Pie- 
tist, partly of his response to the ideals presented by 
Hochmann and others of his friends at Schwarzenau, 
partly of his favorable response to the stimuli presented 
by the writings of Arnold and Felbinger, and partly the 
result of his experiences with the orthodox churches. 
Once formulated, this ideal was presented by Mack to his 
friends in Schwarzenau. This then became a stimulus 
to which they had to respond in some way. Here again 
conflict and selection determined the original members of 
the Dunker church. 

It was under the conditions just sketched and by the 
processes described that the Dunkers took their beginn- 
ing in 1708 at Schwarzenau, in Wittgenstein, within what 
was later known as the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. 

While the Dunker church has always refused to ac- 
knowledge any man as its founder, yet it looks back to 
Alexander Mack as the one who had the most to do with 
its formation. He was the natural leader of the original 



56 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

band, and during his life-time was the most influential 
person among them both in Europe and, later, in Amer- 
ica. The Dunker writers of later times speak of Mack as 
"their teacher," and as "one of their number who was a 
leader and speaker of the word in their meetings."* 
Mack, born in 1679, and brought up in the Reformed 
church, was, when we first hear of him, a wealthy miller 
at Schriesheim an-der-Bergstrasse. This was probably 
his birth-place. Before 1708 he had left Schriesheim, 
and had gone to live at Schwarzenau, because of per- 
secution incident to his interest in Pietism and Separa- 
tism^ as appears from his son's words in the Introduc- 
tion to "A Plain View of the Rites and Ordinances, etc." X 
Aside from this account and a few words in the opening 
chapter of the "Chronicon Ephratense," we have no 
knowledge of the life of Mack until he went to Schwar- 
zenau. Here he became acquainted with other Pietists 

* "Chronicon Ephratense," Eng. trans., p. l;Mack, "A Plain View, etc." 
quoted in Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren," p. 38, 39. 

f I use the word Separatism, not as the designation of any sect, but sim- 
ply as a term that indicates a very wide-spread tendency of the times. 

X "It pleased God in his mercy, early in the beginning- of this century to 
support his 'grace that bringeth salvation, and which hath appeared to all 
men,' by many a voice calling them to awake and repent, so that thereby 
many were aroused from tbe sleep and death of sin. These began to look 
around for the truth and righteousness, as they are in Jesus, but they had 
soon to see with sorrowful eyes the great decay (of true Christianity) al- 
most in every place. From this lamentable state of things they were press- 
ed to deliver many a faithful testimony of truth, and here and there private 
meetings were established besides the public church organization, in which 
newly awakened souls sought their edification. Upon this the hearts of 
the rulers were embittered by an envious priesthood, *and persecutions 
were commenced in various places, as in Switzerland, Wuertemberg, the 
Palatinate, Hesse and other places. To those persecuted and exiled per- 
sons the Lord pointed out a place of refuge, or a little 'Pella,' in the land of 
Wittgenstein, where at that time ruled a mild count, and where some pious 
countesses dwelt. Here liberty of conscience was granted at Schwarzenau, 
which is within a few miles of Berleberg."— Brumbaugh, op. cit. 



THE BUNKER ORGANIZATION 57 

and separatists that had been driven thither by the per- 
secutions in neighboring districts, the most noted of 
whom was Hochmann, whose beliefs were noticed in 
the previous chapter. 

It was in a district where the doctrines of such people 
were received by the rulers, as well as by the people, 
that Mack lived for some time previous to 1708. From 
all parts of the country around, men and women of similar 
opinions had come into Wittgenstein. * Here was a coun- 
try where all kinds of sectarians were protected in their 
opinions. What Mack's opinions had been before this 
we do not know in detail, but from the account, quoted 
above, it is probable that he had held opinions at Schries- 
heim that made him the object of persecution there. If 
so, his removal to Schwarzenau was a step that would 
tend naturally to accentuate his separatistic proclivities. 

As the companion of Hochmann, Mack had the oppor- 
tunity of visiting many different communities of Baptists 
(Taufgesinnten) in Germany, t In this way he became 
acquainted with the various views held by different com- 
munities of these sectarians. This experience not only 
confirmed him in his separatism, but the enforced com- 
parison of the doctrines with which he met led him to an 
independent study of the subjects that were under dis- 
cussion, and the formation of idiosyncratic opinions. % 

After studying the matter for some time he found him- 
self unable to be satisfied with the moderate position of 
Hochmann on some points of organization. With the lat- 
ter he was agreed as to the necessity of an internal (mys- 
tical) life corresponding to the outward profession, as to 

* Goebel, 2: 759 t 

f Mack's "A Plain View," quoted in Brumbaugh, "History of the Breth- 
ren", p. 39. 

% Ibid, p. 36 f . 



58 THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE 

baptism being only for adults, the office of the Holy Spir- 
it in the selection and qualification of ministers, the func- 
tion of governments, the Lord's Supper being only for 
the regenerate, Christian perfection, final restoration of 
the lost, and as to the low estate of matrimony compared 
with celibacy.* 

But Mack was not content with these positions. He 
had come under the influence, not only of Hochmann, but 
also of Gottfried Arnold, t The latter had been profess- 
or of Church History at Giessen, 1697-1698. He was a 
most pronounced separatist, and wrote voluminously on 
the life in the early Christian churches, with a view to 
showing that the churches of his times had departed 
widely from the life and organization of the church of the 
early centuries of Christianity. He did more than any 
other one to develop and apply the doctrine then held, at 
least in theory, by all theologians of the Protestant 
churches, that true Christianity is Bible-Christianity, 
and that the early church is its best interpreter. $ 

These two men had a most profound influence on Mack's 
course. But Mack reacted upon them and reached a po- 
sition independent of them both. He was satisfied neith- 
er with the mystical, unorganized separatism of Hoch- 
mann, nor with the negative criticism of Arnold. He 
wished to see embodied in an organized community the 
elements of truth that he recognized in both. This em- 
bodiment, the unorganized Pietists gathered together 
from all parts of Germany and Switzerland to Wittgen- 

*See Chapter II, also Mack's "A Plain View, etc.", quoted in Holsinger, 
"History of the Tunkers", p 113 f. 

tlbid, p. 77. Jeremias Felbinger's influence on Mack accounts for some 
doctrines. See "A Plain View, etc.", Holsinger, p 81. 

t See his "Erste Liebe," and "Qnpartaische Kirchen-und-Ketzer His- 
torien", passim. 



THE B TINKER OB GANIZA TION 59 

stein, and who consisted of men of all shades of opinion, 
did not afford. * 

In the conflict of ideals, therefore, which presented 
themselves to Mack, there arose in his mind the ideal of a 
Christian society that was different from that of the orth- 
odox church, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, 
from the ideal of the church as a mystical, unorganized 
fellowship based on the recognition of certain Pietistic 
teachings concerning conduct, held by Hochmann and 
his friends. This ideal was that of a society based upon 
the New Testament, interpreted in the light of the his- 
tory of the primitive church, as its organic and statute 
law, with a definite organization. 

Consequently Mack set about assemblying those who 
held like opinions with a view to their organization into a 
community in which these desirable objects could be 
attained. Finally, in 1708 "eight persons consented 
together to enter into a covenant of a good conscience 
with God, to take up all the commandments of Jesus 
Christ as an easy yoke, and thus to follow the Lord Jesus, 
their good and faithful shepherd, in joy and sorrow, as 
his true sheep, even unto a blessed end", to quote the 

* "Those who were brought together there from the persecutions, though 
they were distinguished by different opinions, and also differed in manners 
and customs, were still, at first, all called Pietists, and they among them- 
selves called each other brother. But very soon it appeared that the words 
of Christ, Matthew 18, where he says, 'If thy brother shall trespass 
against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, etc.'", 
could not be reduced to a proper Christian practice, because there was no 
regular order yet established in the church. Therefore some returned 
again to the religious denominations from which they had come out, be- 
cause they would not be subject to a more strict Christian discipline; and 
to others it appeared that the spiritual liberty was carried too far, which 
was thought to be more dangerous than the religious organizations they 
had left". — Mack, "A Plain View, etc.", quoted in Brumbaugh, "History of 



60 THE D TINKERS IN EUROPE. 

quaint description written by Mack's son. * There were 
five men and three women. Two were from Hesse-Cassel, 
two, or three, from Schriesheim, one or two from Basle, 
Switzerland, and two from Bareit, Wuertemberg.f After 
they had come to an agreement as to the necessity of 
forming a church, they decided to be rebaptized, because 
baptism is the door into the church. They believed that 
they had not been members of the true church of Christ 
hitherto, since it had not yet been organized, and since 
they had not received the baptism that they believed was 
the only Christian baptism. Therefore, as the first step 
to be taken in their new venture, they requested Mack to 
baptize them "according to the example of the primitive 
and best Christians, upon their faith"4 But Mack did 
not consider himself baptized, and therefore could not 
baptize others. In the difficulty they decided to fast and 
pray that they might have the guidance of Christ him- 
self in the matter. Mack believed in a kind of Apostolic 
Succession, but it was not one that was dependent on 
men's hands. Therefore the following expedient was 
adopted as the direction of Christ. They cast lots to 
determine who should baptize Mack. He, in turn, bap- 
tized the others. This satisfied their determination to 
be "baptized by the church of Christ", for they consider- 

*Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p37. Brumbaugh thinks 
that a part of this Introduction was an original document printed at 
Schwarzenau, but I have seen no evidence for such a conclusion. See Brum- 
baugh, p 43 n. 

f The exact names and former residence of these first eight members it 
is not possible to determine. Ecclesiastically, two had been Lutherans and 
the other six members of the Reformed church. The striking fact, to 
which Ritschl has called attention in his "Geschichte d. Pietismus", that 
the Reformed church was much more prolific of sects than the Lutheran, 
is exemplified by the composition of the membership of the first body of 
this denomination. See Brumbaugh, p. 30. 

JMack, "A Plain View, etc.", Brumbaugh, p 39. 



THE BUNKER ORGANIZATION 61 

ed this person designated by the Holy Spirit himself. 
The name of the person upon whom the lot fell, by com- 
mon agreement, always remained a secret. 

This first baptism occurred in the solitude of the early 
morning, in the Eder river, a small stream that flows 
past Schwarzenau, sometime in the year 1708. * After 
they had come up out of the water, and had changed their 
clothing, the old record tells us that "they were made at 
the same time to rejoice with great inward joy fulness, 
and by grace they were deeply impressed with these 
significant words. 'Be ye fruitful and multiply"'. 

Thus, Mack's ideal of a social organization originated 
as follows: 

1. The doctrines suggested by a consciousness of un- 
likeness to the orthodox Christians demanded a means 
for their realization. 

2. What kind of an organization it should be was 
determined by this same consciousness of kind. It was 
an ideal that originated in opposition, on the one hand, 
to that realized in the organizations already in existence, 
both orthodox and sectarian. On the other hand, it was 
an ideal the character of which was determined by 
opposition to the non-ecclesiastical, mystical ideal of 
fellowship advocated by Hochmann. 

Like the doctrines, Mack's ideal of a social organiza- 
tion was born of conflict. The elements of which it was 
made up were selected out of a multitude that the social 
and religious conditions of the time suggested. In large 
measure, they were selected by Mack because they ex- 
pressed the opposition he felt to the social organizations 
representing elements of the population unlike that to 

* Mack, "A Plain View, etc"., in Brumbaugh's "History of the Breth- 
ren'', p 40. We have three lists of names, one of which differs from the 
other two. See Brumbaugh, p 30. 



62 THE B UNKERS IN EUROPE 

which he belonged. In short, the ideal of an organization, 
realized in the Dimker church, was produced by a heter- 
ogeneity in the population, which in turn, was condition- 
ed by the natue of the environment. 

Thus was inaugurated the sect that came to be known as 
"Taufers," or "Tunkers," because of their mode of bap- 
tism, but who at first called themselves simply "Breth- 
ren." Insignificant as that beginning may have seemed 
to the superficial observer of the time, it was the origin 
of a religious body which, together with others like it, 
has had great influence upon American social and politi- 
cal life in certain states of the Union, and that today is 
contributing not a little to the solid citizenship, and to the 
national prosperity, and something to the culture of our 
country. To the student of the social condition of Ger- 
many at that time it is interesting for the light it throws 
on the quality of German religious thought, and on the 
character of the German people of the lower classes of 
that period, and, most important of all, from our stand- 
point, it gives one an interesting glimpse into the pro- 
cesses by which human societies originate, and according 
to which they develop. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Development and Close of the Movement in 

Europe. 

Whenever a number of persons have deliberately come 
to the same conclusion on a doctrine or an ideal, and on 
the basis of that similarity have united in association for 
a common purpose, their zeal for the accomplishment of 
that purpose varies directly with the development of the 
consciousness of kind. That is to say, their zeal will be 
great or small, on the one hand, according as they are 
conscious of their likeness to each other, and, on the oth- 
er, according as they recognize their unlikeness to their 
opponents. 

This principle explains the growth of the Schwarzenau 
congregation and the origin of other Dunker churches. 
The organization had now been formed at Schwarzenau. 
It was small, being composed of but eight people. But 
these were all united in purpose. Discussion of the dif- 
ferent doctrines had selected them from the mass of Pie- 
tists at Schwarzenau, and had made real their potential 
similarity. Only those had entered the organization as 
charter members who were thoroughly convinced of the 
truth of the positions held by Mack. 

A consciousness of likeness among the members of an 
association, however, is sharpened by the conciouness 
that, as a group, they are different from other groups in 
the population. The intensity of their zeal is dependent 
on this consideration also, for, if they did not feel that 
they were different from other groups, they would not 
experience a desire to bring others to their own way of 
thinking. Thus, consciousness of kind develops zealous 
activity. 

Continued like response to these two classes of stimuli 



64 THE D TINKERS IN E VR OPE 

helped to make perfect the consciousness of kind which 
membership in the same social class, like response to 
persecution by the tolerated religions, and a more or less 
extended period of acquaintance at Schwarzenau had gen- 
erated among the first Dunkers. Therefore, to begin 
with, Mack had a church composed of members who 
were of one mind on the doctrines held and on the pur- 
pose of the organization. With a united organization and 
a definite program it was possible for the Dunkers to 
make a very deep impression on the other Pietists at 
Schwarzenau. Consequently, the growth of the church 
there, for a time, was very rapid. 

However, the manifestation of zeal results in a further 
development of likemindedness.* Cause and effect 
change places. As consciousness of likeness among the 
members of a society increases, the consciousness of like- 
ness among the social groups in a population decreases, 
unless, indeed, the population, as a whole, is rapidly be- 
coming unified. Hence, after a period of success among 
the population at Wittgenstein, the activity and success 
of the Dunkers raised up opposition. Naturally, it took 
the shape of discussion, since Wittgenstein did not allow 
persecution. Gruber's Questions and Mack's Answers 
thereto are the evidences, t 

There are two ways in which a society multiplies its 
congregations, (1) by missionary preaching, and (2) by 
colonization. The first method arises when the surplus 
energy of the congregation has no promising field for its 
exercise in its own vicinity. This condition may come 
about by the absorption of all likeminded persons in the 
vicinity, or by the growth of an active opposition, or 
both. It arises according to the law of least effort. The 
energy seeks the line of least resistance. The second 

* See Ross, "Foundations of So«iology," p 96. 
t See Mack's "A Plain View, etc.", p. 72 f. 



MO VEMENT IN EUROPE 65 

may arise because of persecution in times when that is 
the mode of expressing consciousness of unlikeness, or, 
from response to economic opportunities, or, rarely from 
a like response to opportunities of social service. 

At first the zeal of the Dunkers had a field for its 
expression among the inhabitants of Wittgenstein. But 
after a time, probably according to the law of rhythm, 
their success in winning adherents lessened. The zeal 
of the Dunkers, obeying the law of least effort, then led 
them to seek converts in other parts of the country. 
Naturally, Mack went, or sent men, to the people with 
whom he had become acquainted on his journeys with 
Hockmann. There converts were made. 

These principles enable us to understand the facts of 
the early history of the Dunkers. Mack and his com- 
panions had felt deeply impressed with the necessity of 
obedience to the command of God to Noah, u Be ye fruit- 
ful and multiply". * 

Accordingly they threw themselves earnestly into the 
work of spreading their beliefs. So successful were they 
that within the first seven years of their history, as an 
organization, they had not only gathered a considerable 
congregation at Schwarzeuau, "but here and there in the 
Palatinate there were lovers of the truth, and especially 
was this the case at Marienborn, where a church was 
gathered, "f There are four places which, we hear, con- 
tained members of the Dunker faith. They are Schwar- 
zenau, Crefeld, Marienborn and Ebstein. Besides these 
places we are told that there were scattered members 
here and there in the Palatinate, and a few in Switzerland. :(: 
This seems to have been the widest extent of the Dunker 

* Ibid, p. x. 

t"A Plain View, etc.", p xi. 

JIbid, p xi; cf. "Chronicon Ephratense , ' > p 247. 



66 THE D UNKERS IN EUROPE 

movement in Europe, and this lasted only a comparative- 
ly short time. 

Such zeal demanded a response. If the population to 
which the appeal is made is homogeneous and there is 
mental and moral resemblance between it and those 
that come as missionaries, as was largely the case at 
Schwarzenau, the response is favorable. In case, how- 
ever, the population of the place to which the missionaries 
go is heterogeneous and there is but slight conscious- 
ness of likeness between the majority of the people and 
those that present an ideal, then the response of this 
part of the people naturally will be hostile. This latter 
condition prevailed in general at that time in southwest- 
ern Germany and Switzerland. The population was com- 
posite. The majority of the people were not like Mack 
and his fellow-missionaries in mental and practical re- 
semblances. Hence, they did not respond favorably to 
the ideals the Dunkers presented. Therefore, as well as 
converts, the Dunkers also made enemies, who stirred up 
persecution against the Dunker converts. As a result of 
the persecution the members in Switzerland and the Pal- 
atinate had to flee. A part of them removed to Marien- 
born. These immigrants together with some from other 
places constituted the church at that place. 

In most cases it is probable, however, that the stimulus 
of economic opportunity played some part in the deter- 
mination of the points at which other congregations should 
be established. It was difficult for such large numbers 
of people to make a living at Schwarzenau. Therefore, 
after the common fund was exhausted, some of them 
were forced to seek other places in which to live. Some 
went to Marienborn and some to Ebstein and together 
with refugees from Switzerland and the Palatinate, form- 
ed the original members of churches in those towns. 



MO VEMENT IN EUROPE 67 

As soon as these people settled in a place, they felt it 
incumbent upon themselves to bear witness to their faith. 
This testimony became a stimulus to which the people 
and the rulers perforce responded. Some responded 
favorably, some unfavorably. Persecution originated in 
the unfavorable responses, and where the Dunkers were 
not protected by a policy of toleration, it drove them out. 
That happened to be the case at Marienborn, where per- 
secution closed the history of the Danker congregation. 
Some of them went back to Schwarzenau, and some to 
Crefeld. 

What became of the members at Ebstein we can only 
conjecture. Two of the Dunker ministers in Europe, 
Christian Libe and Abraham Dubois were from Ebstein. 
The former went to Crefeld, the latter to Schwarzenau. 
From this it is possible to suppose that the members of 
the congregation at Ebstein went to one of the two places 
just named. *■ What occasioned the break up of the con- 
gregation at Ebstein we do not know. Thus, in 1715 
there were but two congregations of Dunkers in Europe, 
one at Schwarzenau and one at Crefeld. f 

We turn now to interpret in some detail the history of 

*"A Plain View, etc." p xi. 

fit is scarcely possible to infer from the places spoken of in the list of 
ministers of the Dunker church previous to 1715, given in the Introduction 
to "A Plain View, etc.," that there were members in other places. Dur- 
ing the time from the organization of the church to 1715, the following 
men were called to the office of the ministry: John Henry Kalkleser from 
Frankenthal; Christian Libe and Abraham Dubois from Ebstein; John Nass 
from Norton; Peter Becker from Dillsheim; John Henry Trout and his broth- 
ers, Heinrich Holzapple and Stephen Kock, of whose native places we are not 
told; George B. Ganzfrom Umstatt; and Michael Echerlin from Strasburg. 
All of these became ministers at Crefeld, except Kalkleser, Dubois, Ganz 
and Echerlin, who were at Schwarzenau. Of other members in the places 
named we know nothing. If there were others besides these ministers they 
must have removed, or were too few to form a congregation, for we hear of 
no churches in those places. 



68 THE D TINKERS IN EUROPE 

these two congregations, Schwarzenau and Crefeld. 

The origin of the -first of these has been noticed in 
Chapter II. Of the subsequent history of this congrega- 
tion down to 1713 we know very little. Located in a land 
where there was religious toleration it enjoyed apparently 
an undisturbed prosperity. It is probable that the 
large numbers of people that had gathered in Wittgen- 
stein from various parts of the country, fleeing thither 
from persecution, united with the Dunkers. Goebel has 
a remark that doubtless refers to this. He says, quot- 
ing Count Carl Gustavus, that at Schwarzenau (and El son 2 ) 
there were over three hundred families gathered, and in 
Berleberg (especially in Homrighausen) there were about 
as many families. Many of these had allowed themselves 
to be baptized in the Eder by immersion in 1709.* As 
the Dunkers were the only immersionists in the region, 
so far as we know, this probably refers to them. 

In this congregation during the period before 1713 two 
interesting features appeared, communism and celibacy. 
Sometime during this period of the history of this con- 
gregation Alexander Mack, the originator of the move- 
ment, put his property into the common fund of the 
congregation. The quaint description of this transaction 
is found in the "Chronicon Ephratense", the history of 
the Community at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, founded by 
Conrad Beissel. It says, "The Schwarzenau Baptists 
arose in the year 1708; and the persons who at that time 
broke the ice, amid much opposition, were Alexander 
Mack, their teacher, a wealthy miller of Schriesheim-an- 
der-Bergstrasse, who devoted all his earthly possessions 
to the common good, and thereby became so poor that at 
last he had not bread enough to last from one day to the 

*Goebel, "©eschichte d. Christlichen Lebens", 2:774. 



MO VEMENT IN EUR OPE 69 

next, etc."* This throws an interesting light on 
the internal arrangements of the congregation. This 
author asserts that the congregation at Schwarzenau 
practiced a kind of communism, t 

These same writings also give evidence that in the 
early history of the congregation at Schwarzenau celibacy 
was the rule. , That this practice continued for seven 
years, and was then given up is all that we know about 
it. 

Just what caused this congregation to give up these 
features we are not told. In 1713, however, Mack ex- 
cuses the Dunkers for having practised them thus: 
"That we, however, after baptism had difficulties to 
overcome concerning marriage, labor and many other 
points, is true; for before our baptism, while we were 
yet among the Pietists, we were not otherwise taught by 
those who were deemed as great saints. Hence we had 
much contention until we gave up our imbibed errors. "J 
It is probable, however, that social changes were primary 
among the influences that led to their abandonment. 
The social unrest that had characterized the period fol- 
lowing the influx into Wittgenstein of the diverse social 
elements, when the persecuted of other regions fled 
thither for protection, had gradually given place to 

* "Chronicon Ephratense", p 1. Eng. trans. 

fThis has been denied by some later Dunker writers. For example, 
the author of the Memoir of Alexander Mack, probably James Quinter, 
judging- from the initials, — J. Q., which are prefixed to the English trans- 
lation of Mack's "A Plain View, etc", says that Mack lost all his money by 
paying fines for the members of his congregation. Part of it doubtless 
went in this way, but it is probable that the most of it was used in the 
common expenses of the congregation. See "Chronicon Ephratense", p 2 
and Gruber's Query 37 with Mack's Answers to it in "A Plain View, etc.," 
p87. 

JMack, "A Plain View, etc.," Question 37, p 87. 



70 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

social assimilation, and social peace. The enthusiasm 
born of unsettled social conditions was superceded by 
the calm deliberation that follows social homogeneity. 
Fanaticism had yielded to sober thought and action. 

All this had come about because the population had 
gradually become more homogeneous. At first the differ- 
ent elements of the population were in conflict. Ideals, 
modes of thought, and habits clashed. Gradually, how- 
ever, as the people became acquainted and came to see 
good qualities in each other, they developed a resem- 
blance to each other, or, in case this did not occur and 
the one party was not strong enough to vanquish the 
other in discussion and social position, conflict made way 
for toleration. Either result made for more settled 
conditions of society in Wittgenstein. 

Moreover, after a time the immigrants settled down to 
steady occupations. Peace gave opportunity for pros- 
perity. Economic prosperity is the eternal enemy of 
fanaticism. There was no further need of a communistic 
sharing of goods, and on the disappearance of that feature 
there followed the building up of private property and 
individual homes. With the death of fanaticism there 
naturally ensued the giving up of belief in celibacy. 

While these experiments had no influence on the history 
of the church in general, they had significance for the 
early history of the church in America. In Beissel's 
community at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, both of these 
features were very prominent, and the strength of their 
appeal to some of the Dunkers at Germantown shows 
that this incident at Schwarzenau had not been forgotten.* 

The congregation at Schwarzenau was not disturbed 
by persecution during this period, but its activity incited 
at least one of the orthodox opponents of the Dunkers, 
*See "Chronicon Ephratense", p 102. 



MO VEMENT IN EUROPE 71 

viz., Ludwig Gruber, to combat them by skillfully framed 
questions, to which the Dunkers were asked to reply. 
Mack as leader of the congregation answered these 
questions in writing. His reply was considered by the 
congregation such an excellent apology for the Dunker 
beliefs that it was published by the church at Sehwar- 
zenau in July, 1713. Sometime later there was published 
with it a tract called, "A Plain View of the Rites and 
Ordinances of the House of God, Arranged in the Form 
of a Conversation between a Father and Son". This set 
forth more fully the positions of the Dunkers.* Thus 
the first book of the Dunkers grew out of consciousness 
of kind.f 

The incidents in the history of this congregation from 
1713 down to 1720 have left no trace. Evidently it pros- 
pered in its religious freedom under the Count of Witt- 
genstein. But in 1719 on the death of Count Henry 
of Wittgenstein, the ruler that had protected them 
in their freedom to worship as they pleased, perse- 
cution broke out against them, according to Goebel, and 
caused them to remove to Friesland and ultimately to 
America.:}: Whether all the congregation of Dunkers 
at Schwarzenau left with this party we do not know. The 
administrator of the Count at Schwarzenau in 1720 could 
say concerning this only, u that for a long time many pi- 

*These two tracts are translated by Holsinger in his "History of the 
Tunkers, etc." p 45 f, together with a translation of the Introduction writ- 
ten by Alexander Mack Jr. in January, 1774. Holsinger called his chapter 
"Mack's Book." They have been translated and published in pamphlet 
form by the Brethren's Publishing Company, Mt. Morris, 111 1, 1888. 

fEvidently, in the eyes of the separatists of Schwazenau, Mack came out 
best in the discussion, as most of them joined the Dunkers the next year. 

iGoebel, "Geschichte d. Christlichen Lebens," 2:776. 



72 THE BUNKERS IN EUROPE 

ous people have lived around here, of whom no one heard 
any thing bad, but perceived that they conducted them- 
selves in a wholly quiet and pious manner, and by no one 
had a complaint been made of them. There were about 
forty families of them, about two hundred persons, that 
lately have betaken themselves entirely out of the land, 
of whom it is said that they were Anabaptists ( Wieder- 
taeuf er. ) The rest of those who yet live about Schwarzenau 
are Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed in religion. How- 
ever, whether any of the above-named persons, who are 
forbidden the Kingdom, stay about here, is unknown to 
me."* Evidently Goebel has given the place of their final 
destination, not the place to which they went immediately 
on their leaving Schwarzenau. In 1720 the emigration 
was not to America, but to Wester vain, West Friesland. f 
This occurred the next year after Peter Becker and his 
party had left Crefeld for America. 

In Friesland the congregation continued its existence 
under Mack's leadership until 1729, when at least 116 
members came with Mack to America in the ship Allen 
from Rotterdam, via Cowes.t In the nine years' sojourn 
in West Friesland some additions were made to the 
membership.** Thus closed the history of the original 
congregation of Dunkers in Europe. 

The Crefeld congregation had a shorter history. It 
began in 1715 by the removal thither of the members 
from other places. 

Those that chose Crefeld did so for three reasons, (1) 

*Goebel, "Geschichte d. ChristlichenLebens," op. cit., ibid. 

t Morgan Edwards quoted in Rupp's, "Religious Denominations," p 92 f; 
See also Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren," p 45. 

JSee the list of these in Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren" p 54. 
Also see "Pennsylvania Archives," Second Series, 17:18. 

**Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 54, 93. 



MO VEMENT IN EUBOPE 7S 

because of the situation and economic opportunity, (2) 
because of religious toleration at Crefeld, (3) because of 
a consciousness of likeness between themselves and the 
large number of Mennonites there, a people in most 
respects like the Dunkers. Not all the members of the 
congregation at Crefeld were from the original congrega- 
tion at Schwarzenau. Some were from Marienborn 
whence they had been driven by persecution, possibly 
some from Ebstein, while it is probable that many of the 
members in Switzerland and the Palatinate mentioned by 
Alexander Mack Jr., went to Crefeld, when persecution 
drove them from those places. Thus, diverse elements 
entered into the composition of the Crefeld congregation, 
a circumstance which throws light upon the checkered 
history of this church. 

This congregation thrived well for a time. It was in a 
prosperous manufacturing community under the religious 
freedom granted by the King of Prussia. Moreover, 
Crefeld was a city in which there had assembled a great 
many Mennonites that had been driven from Switzerland 
by persecution.* The latter sect had many points of 
belief in common with the Dunkers, and, furthermore, it 
had sympathy for all those that were persecuted for 
conscience sake. There was in Crefeld much intercom- 
munication between the two sects, Dunkers and Mennon- 
ites. Many of the Mennonites joined the Dunkers, just 
as they did later in Pennsylvania, f On the whole, there- 
fore, this city was a favorable one for the development of 
a strong Dunker congregation. 

But sometime between 1715 and 1719 discord arose, 
and a division of the congregation occurred. It came 

*Mueller, "Geschichte d. Bernischen Taeufer", p 194, 228. Also Goebel, 
"Geschichte d. Christlichen Lebens", 2:846. 
fSee Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 51. 



74 THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE 

about in this way: A young minister in the Dunker 
church at Crefeld by the name of Hoeeker formed an 
attachment for the daughter of a merchant of Crefeld 
who was himself a member of the Dunkers, but who had 
been a Mennonite, and who still preached for the latter 
for 800 gulden a year. Hoeeker was a more scholarly 
man than most of those in the ministry among the 
Dunkers at Crefeld, and was very active in the work. 
This created a jealousy on the part of some of the other 
ministers against him. The young lady, to whom he 
finally was married by her father, was not a member of 
the Dunker congregation. This gave those who were 
envious of Hoeeker an opportunity to express their 
consciousness of kind. Christian Libe, who had been a 
very zealous preacher of Dunker views in all parts of 
the Rhine Valley, and had been imprisoned for two years 
on the galleys for preaching forbidden doctrines in Basle, 
together with four other single ministers decided to 
place the ban upon Hoeeker.* It is uncertain whether 
their reason was that he had married out of the church, 
or that he, a minster, had married at all, contrary to the 
teaching of Paul in 1 Cor. 7. The fact that the ministers 
who decided to put Hoeeker under the ban were single 
men as well as the asceticism of some of the early 
Dunkers gives color to the latter explanation. On the 
other hand, the fact that George Adam Martin says that 
Libe afterwards married out of the congregation contrary 
to his own principles in the case of Hoeeker, and the 
hostile attitude of the Dunker church from early times 
down to the present to marriages with anyone outside 
the Dunker church would tend to sustain the latter 
hypothesis. However, whatever the reason given, it 

*For the details of Libe's imprisonment on the galleys see Muller, 
"Geschichte d. Bern. Taeufer", p 226 f. 



MO VEMENT IN EUR OPE 75 

is probable that the real cause of the trouble was a 
feeling of difference between Hoecker and the others 
which can be traced back to the diverse social ele- 
ments that entered into the composition of the mem- 
bership of this congregation. 

John Nass, the elder in charge of the church, and 
Peter Becker, another minister and the friend of Hoecker 
were not in favor of excommunicating him. As a com- 
promise they offered to suspend him from participation 
in the Lord's supper. In this the majority of the 
congregation agreed. But this mild measure did not 
satisfy Libe and his partisans. They declared that 
Hoecker was under the ban, and proceded to treat 
him as such. In that day this was a very severe punish- 
ment, as no member of the church, no matter whether 
related to him by the closest ties, was to have anything 
to do with the one under the ban, not even to sit at the 
same table, or have any conversation with him.* 

The two parties could not agree. Potential resem- 
blance did not exist. The longer they discussed the 
matter, the stronger each side became in its conviction 
that it was right. The resulting division was what might 
have been expected under the circumstances. The con- 
gregation was made up of people from many different 
parts of Europe. They had not been subjected to the 
same environment. In the short time that they had 
formed a congregation in Cref eld they had not yet had 
time to become perfectly assimilated. There were two 
extremes among these separatists that constituted the 
Dunkers. The one was inclined to be mystical and aus- 
tere; the other was more moderate in its tendencies, f 
Here the two came to an open clash. 

*See Mack, "A Plain View, etc.," p 59, 60. 

tSee Goebel, "Geschichte d. Christlichen Lebens " 843 f. 



76 THE D UNKERS IN EUROPE 

This trouble ruined the congregation at Crefeld. At 
the time of the outbreak John Nass is reported as saying 
that there were over one hundred persons who contem- 
plated joining the Dunkers, but refused to do so on ac- 
count of the trouble.* The outcome of it all was that 
Hoecker took the matter so to heart that he soon died. 
His death only added fuel to the flames of hate already 
burning. Peter Becker, the friend of Hoecker, soon 
afterwards left Crefeld for Pennsylvania. With him went 
some of the congregation. The seeds of discord were 
carried along with them and prevented an organization 
for some time in America, t 

How many were in this emigration we are not able to 
say definitely. Brumbaugh thinks, on the basis of a 
statement found in Goebel's "Geschichte d. Christlichen 
Lebens," 2:776, which has been referred to on pages 71 
and 72 above, that about two hundred from Wittgenstein 
(probably from Schwarzenau) went with Becker to Amer- 
ica, t But it is quite probable that no such number from 
any place accompanied Becker.** That with Becker there 
went the larger portion of the congregation at Crefeld, 
or, at least, the portion of it that was dangerous in the 
eyes of the orthodox clergy, is shown by the reference 
to bhis migration in the Acta Synod General, 1719, 21 ad 

^Martin's Letter quoted in "Chronicon Ephratense, " p 249. 

t"Chronicon Ephratense," p 3, 249. 

JSee Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren," p 49, note (2). 

**My reasons for this are as follows: (1) Because Morgan Edwards in his 
"Materials towards a History of the Baptists," written in 1770, says that 
there were about twenty persons who came with Becker. (Rupp's "Relig- 
ious Denominations," p 92.); (2) because the "Chronicon Ephratense" sim- 
ply says that there were "several," which would hardly be the adjective 
used, had there been any such number as two hundred; and (3), because it is 
probable that the passage of Goebel referred to does not have any refer- 
ence to the emigration under Becker, but to the removal of the Dunkers 



• MO VEMENT IN EUROPE 17 

44, as follows: "The preachers of the Meuro classe have 
received the confession of faith of the so-called Dompel- 
aers staying at Creyf elt, and they have sent their 'remon- 
stration' to his gracious Majesty the King of Prussia. 
However, this Fratres Meursanae Synodi report with 
pleasure that these Dompelaers, who have have been so 
injurious to our church, haye taken themselves away by 
water and are said to have sailed to Pennsylvania."* 

However, some ^members were left in Crefeld. Over 
these John Nass and Christian Libe continued to preside. 
But these two leaders soon fell out. John Nass called 
Libe a pill-monger in the presence of the congregation, 
and then withdrew into retirement until he came to Amer- 
ica in 1733, leaving Christian Libe in charge of the con- 
gregation. The church did not prosper under the leader- 
ship of Libe. George Adam Martin reported that, "the 
Brethren who had been prisoners withdrew, the whole 
congregation was given up, and everything went to 
ruin."t Libe became a wine merchant, and married out 
of the church, in violation of his own rules in regard to 
Hoecker. 

What become of the members that were left at Crefeld 
it is impossible to say positively. Perhaps some, like 
John Nass, afterwards went to America. Doubtless, 
some of the members accompanied Mack to West Fries- 

from Schwarzenau to West Friesland in 1719, whence they finally emigrat- 
ed to America. It would not be at all strange, if they went first to Crefeld, 
and there picked up some members of the congregation that had remained 
behind when Becker left with his company for America, and thence went 
on to West Friesland. This reference in Goebel, on this hypothesis, throws 
light upon Mack's party, but none whatever upon Becker's. This explan- 
ation also has the advantage of resolving the di fnculty involved in Brum- 
baugh's theory. 

*Quoted from Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren," p 51. 

f'Chronicon Ephratense", p 248. Why Nass called Libe a pill-monger 
is not recorded. 



78 THE D UNKERS IN E UB OPE 

land and went with him thence to America. Some, no 
doubt, joined the Mennonites, or some of the other church- 
es at Crefeld. The real history of this congregation 
closed in 1719, when Becker and his party left for Amer- 
ica. 

The difference in the conditions prevailing at Schwar- 
zenau and at Crefeld explains the difference in the his- 
tory of the two congregations. The physical environ- 
ment of Crefeld was different from that of Schwarzenau. 
The former was a flourishing manufacturing town. It 
had become famous for its linen weaving. It lay in the 
lower valley of the Rhine much closer to the sea and 
much less secluded than Schwarzenau. The latter was a 
place, shut off from the rest of the world, and without 
the economic advantages of Crefeld. 

These differences in the physical environments had 
made the composition of the Dunker population at Crefeld 
much more heterogeneous than that at Schwarzenau, be- 
cause the elements of the congregation at the former 
place had been assembled from various places by perse- 
cution, while the congregation at Schwarzenau had been 
built up by a process of selection. 

Furthermore, before the membership of the Crefeld 
congregation could be unified by a like response to the 
Dunker doctrines and ideal of unity for a long period, the 
conflict of two ideals divided the congregation. This 
made it impossible for the congregation to present united- 
ly an ideal to the world, and prevented the pursuit of a 
policy of unification and consequently the growth of the 
church there. Consequently it went to pieces. 

The physical and geographical situation of Crefeld 
made it more accessible to influences from England and 
Holland in the interest of colonization schemes in Amer- 
ica, while, on the other hand, the more general conscious- 



MO VEMENT IN EUROPE 79 

ness of kind, developed by kindred experiences, caused 
the Dunkers in Crefeld to respond favorably to the Men- 
nonite and Quaker schemes of colonization. Thus, the 
physical environment together with other influences de- 
termined the presence of the Dunkers at Crefeld, made 
easy the withdrawal of any dissatisfied members, when 
the occasion arose, and determined a composite member- 
ship in the congregation, and so conflicting ideals. 

At Schwarzenau, on the other hand, the congregation 
was gradually built up out of elements that had many 
points of similarity and therefore were capable of assim- 
ilation by a process of selection in response to the ideals 
of Mack, instead of by the sudden aggregation of ele- 
ments socially unlike. A perfect society is not formed 
by a single like response to stimulus, but by a like re- 
sponse repeated often enough to create an effective like- 
mindedness. This the twelve years of like response to 
the ideals of Mack accomplished. This period also en- 
abled Mack to realize his ideal of unity for the congre- 
gation. It gave him time to weld it into a homogeneous 
whole. 

In 1719 the political conditions in Wittgenstein changed. 
The tolerant prince died, and was succeeded by one that 
had been subjected to different conditions. The policy 
of religious freedom gave place to one of persecution of 
all sectarians. A like response to this stimulus took 
about 200 of the Schwarzenau Dunkers to Crefeld, and 
thence to West Friesland. At Crefeld some of the con- 
gregation that had remained there after the departure of 
Becker, conscious of their likeness to Mack's party, re- 
sponded to the invitation of their brethren from Schwar- 
zenau and went along. 

Thus, on the whole, Wittgenstein was a political en- 
vironment that at first sheltered and then became hostile 



80 TEE D UNKER8 IN E VR OPE 

to the sectarians of peasant origin. It was a religious 
environment that, for a time, was free and then, after the 
protection of the Counts of Wittgenstein was withdrawn 
in 1719, it was an unfriendly environment. Hence, the 
conditions there were such that for a time they attracted 
people from many parts of the country, and subsequent- 
ly became such that they forced certain people out. 

The removal of this congregation to America was the 
result of a like response to the stimuli of their enviro- 
ment in Friesland, and of their prospective home in the 
New World, coupled with a like response to the ideals of 
religous and political liberty presented by the letters of 
their brethren in America, and the advertisements of land 
companies, of William Penn and of the sovereigns of Eng- 
land. That some of their comrades in faith followed 
later instead of going with them was due to the unequal 
response of the latter. 

The members of the congregation at Ebstein and 
Marienborn now either had been driven by persecution 
to Cref eld or had been dispersed ; the congregation at 
Crefeld had been divided, and the major portion had re- 
moved to America; and the original congregation at 
Schwarzenau had gone to Friesland, and finally to Pennsyl- 
vania. All that remained of the movement in Europe were 
the broken fragments of the Crefeld congregation, and 
the few scatterd members throughout the Palatinate and 
Switzerland, if, indeed, any were left in the latter country. 
What became of these members is not know. Apparently 
the movement died out with the removal of these two 
congregations, for George Adam Martin, sometime after 
1757, was able to say without fear of contradiction that 
"not a branch is left of their Baptist business in all 
Europe."* The zeal of the few who remained in Europe 

*Letter quoted in "Chronicon Ephratense", p 248. 



MO VEMENT IN E UR OPE 81 

grew cold and they went back to the state churches, or 
were again drawn into u a wakened" circles by such leaders 
as Count Zinzendorf , who appeared in these districts in 
1730. Some few may have crossed the ocean to join their 
comrades in belief in America in the years that followed 
the two great Dunker emigrations, 1719 and 1729.* Thus 
closed the Dunker movement in Europe, to find a more 
congenial environment in America, to develop from a 
narrow sect into a respected denomination of useful 
Christian citizens. 

Sociological Summary. 

How many Dunkers there were in Europe we do not 
know. It is impossible to form an estimate of any value 
from the number of ministers given by Alexander Mack 
Jr., for this list is not exhaustive, and the Dunkers did 
not have one minister to a congregation, as did most of 
the Christian churches of that time.f 

On the basis of what Gdebel says as to the number of 
people that left Schwarzenau for America in 1720, already 
referred to, it is possible to estimate the number of mem- 
bers at Schwarzenau. But it must be only an estimate, 
for we do not know whether all the members there emi- 
grated, and we cannot be sure that all of the 200 men- 
tioned were Dunkers. 

As to the numbers at Cref eld we are totally in the dark. 
We know that about twenty came to America with Beck- 
er, and it is probable that some of those that went with 
Mack to West Friesland from Crefeld came with him to 
America. But how many were left at Crefeld we do not 
know. The closest approach to an exact figure is that 

*See letter of John Nass to his son, written from Germantown in 1733; 
also, Sauer's letter in Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren," p 108. 

fMack, "A Plain View, etc", p xi. 



82 THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE 

given by Dr. Brumbaugh in his "History of the Breth- 
ren." He has brought together a list of 225 members 
that joined the church in Europe. But this list is incom- 
plete, and further investigations may show that ther 
were others. More definitely than this it is impossible 
at this time to speak. They never had more than four 
congregations. * 

Characteristic of both congregations was their zeal. 
With the abandon generally found in the adherents of 
new sects they "were the more powerfully strengthened 
in their obedience to the faith they had adopted, and were 
enabled to testify publically in their meetings to the 
truth", to quote the words of Mack Jr. in his Introduc- 
tion to "A Plain View". This resulted in the rapid 
spread of their faith, but also in the active opposition of 
the ministers of the orthodox churches. Hence, they 
were called upon to endure persecutions. In these 
persecutions the leaders were soon put to the test upon 
their doctrine of the non-resistance of evil. That they 
stood the test is shown by the record, "There were 
those who suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods, 
and others encountered bonds and imprisonment", f On 
the whole, the impression that is made on one as he 
studies the few remains of this period of their history is 
that the members of these first congregations were men 
and women of almost terrible earnestness. One can 
scarcely appreciate in these days of religious peace how 
intense were the religious emotions of those days, when 
religion was the one matter of universal interest, and 
when for their opinions men were often called upon to 
die. The things for which they contended now appear 

*See names and numbers in the first part of this chapter. 

•j-Mack's Introduction to "A Plain View, etc.", p xi; Cf. "Chronicon 
Ephratense" p 1. 



MO VEMENT IN E UR OPE 83 

trivial, but to them they were vital. Into the discussion 
of them they threw all their powers of mind. For the 
defence of them they risked all. 

The explanation of this fervor is to be sought in the 
conflict born of diversity of elements in the population. 
As these elements became assimilated the conflict was 
succeeded by toleration, zeal was displaced by calm 
though tfulness, and the willingness to die for one's con- 
victions gave place to calculating consideration of one's 
own safety and comfort. 

Another characteristic of this early period of their his- 
tor}^ is that the movement was not clearly differentiated 
in practices, and doctrines from the great body of pie- 
tistic separatists of the time. Men's thoughts had not 
yet become clear and definite as to just what should be 
done. The relation of the Bunkers to the persecuting 
churches was clear enough even from the beginning, for 
it was in opposition to them and their doctrines that the 
ideals of Mack had come to conscious expression. But 
the relation of the Dunker organization and doctrines 
to the other sectarian parties and beliefs of the period at 
first was rather indefinite, except with regard to the 
necessity of organization and the emphasis to be given to 
certain doctrines. Therefore, the opposition to the other 
sects and the non-ecclesiastical, religious parties was 
very much less than that felt towards the persecutors, 
and for this reason the relation of the Dunkers to them 
much less clear and definite. 

Moreover, the consciousness of likeness to many of the 
sects made for this lack of clear definition of attitude to- 
wards them. Hence, some were members, doubtless, 
who were not fully convinced of all the positions taken by 
the congregation, but were in general agreement with 
them, while some, convinced of the truth of the doctrines, 



84 THE D UNKERS IN EUROPE 

were not members, because of the distance from a Dun- 
ker congregation and the impossibility of removal to 
Crefeld or Schwarzenau. This circumstance gives one 
the impression, at first glance, that there was no organi- 
zation at the beginning. On the contrary, there was an 
organization, but naturally it was not as definite in some 
respects as it became in time. 

As for the organization of the Dunkers, it developed 
pari passu with their social experience. In every case, 
consciousness of likeness, or, on the other hand, 
of unlikeness to other elements in the population 
led to changes in the organization. In Europe the 
organization developed only as far as the opposition to 
the orthodox opponents and the unorganized separatists 
demanded it. There is no record that there was any 
such thing among them in Europe, for example, as an 
Annual Meeting. As we shall see, that sprang out of the 
opposition of the Dunkers to Zinzendorf and his sectarian 
allies in Pennsylvania. The local congregation was the 
only organization among the Dunkers in Europe. 

Thus, clearness of doctrinal statement, emphasis upon 
certain practices and clearly defined attitude towards oth- 
er organizations and parties came only as a result of conflict 
due to consciousness of dissimilarity. The presence of 
unlike elements in the population, and in the congrega- 
tion gave rise to conflict. 

Moreover, the nature of the composition of the mem- 
bership of the D unker congregations in Europe determin- 
ed the attitude of the organization towards the individual. 
Thus, in the congregation at Schwarzenau there were 
only like elements, and we hear of no coercion of 
the individual. On the other hand, at Crefeld, the 
congregation was made up of different elements, and 
there a policy of coercion was soon attempted. The 



MO VEMENT IN E UR OPE 85 

attempt of Libe to force a policy of uniformity on the 
congregation in the matter of marriage, illustrated by 
his attitude towards Hoecker, is a case in point. 

Several things conspired to close the history of the 
Dunker church in Europe: 

1. Persecutions made flight from one country to an- 
other necessary, and loosened the bonds that bound them 
to the home country. This also helped to beget the 
readiness to escape to any country where liberty of 
conscience was granted. 

2. As early as 1682 William Penn had conveyed 5000 
acres of land in Pennsylvania to Jacob Tellner of Crefeld. 
Penn had already in 1677 been on a preaching tour to 
Germany, and had met many of the people there. Tell- 
ner had been in America between 1678 and 1681. Then 
in 1682 began that enterprise that finally culminated in 
the organization of the Frankfort Land Company, of 
which Pastorius was the agent, and of which five of the 
members were residents of Frankfort, two of Wesel, two 
of Lubeck, and one of Duisberg. Nearly all of them were 
Pietists in the general sense of the term. The object of 
this company was colonization. 

In 1683 Penn sold three gentlemen of Crefeld, viz., 
Remke, Arets and Van Bebber, 1000 acres each. Their 
aim likewise was colonization. Thus it becomes evident 
at a glance what forces were set at work among these 
Crefelders themselves to get people to migrate to Penn- 
sylvania. As a result, in 1683 a colony of thirteen emi- 
grants, of whom at least eleven were from Crefeld, sailed 
for Pennsylvania, where they founded the city of Ger- 
man town. * Most of the members of this colony were 
Mennonites, but the fact that fellowtownsmen had come 
to this country, that they wrote back glowing reports of 

*See Pennypacker, "Historical and Biographical Sketches," pl3 f. 



86 THE DUNKERS IN EUROPE 

its advantages, and that they were people with whom the 
the Bunkers in Crefeld had much intercourse, made it 
very easy for the Bunkers to decide where to go when 
once the occasion arose for their removal. The owners 
of this land naturally saw to it that the Crefelders did 
not lack information and solicitation. 

Besides the influence that these two colonization com- 
panies exerted to induce emigration, William Penn him- 
self was leaving no stone unturned to bring to the atten- 
tion of the sturdy Germans, by the plentiful use of print- 
er's ink, the advantages offered by his American prov- 
ince/* In addition to the advertising Pennsylvania re- 
ceived from these private parties, Queen Anne of England 
and later George I. sent descriptions of their colonies in 
America broadcast throughout these parts of Europe. f 
All this publicity not only incited the desire to migrate, 
it also gave to desire direction. 

3. The general social conditions were bad. The 
promise of a better land with greater opportunities 
strengthened the appeals of the companies seeking col- 
onists. These facts account for the close of the work 
at Crefeld. 

4. Once a body of the Bunkers were in America, and 
were experiencing liberty and larger economic opportun- 
ities, their letters were a most powerful means of induc- 
ing those that remained in Europe to go to America. 
This accounts for the removal in 1729 of the congregation 
that had settled in West Friesland. Most of the mem- 

*See Sachse, "The Fatherland", in Proceedings of Penna. Ger. Soc, 7: 
157 t. 

t" Journal of the House of Commons", 16: 597. Rupp in his reference to 
this in his "Thirty Thousand Names" has made an error as to the page. 



MO YE ME NT IN E UB OPE 87 

bers of the two congregations in Europe had gone to 
America, and the leading spirits among the Dunkers were 
there also. Therefore, there was every reason for the 
scattered members that remained in Europe either to 
migrate thither, or to join some other church. From 
1729 on there was a more or less steady stream of Dunk- 
ers from Europe to America. John Nass the former eld- 
er in charge of the Crefeld congregation went to America 
in 1733, and some of his children a few years later. 

5. On the other hand, the condition of things in the 
congregations themselves had a great deal of influence 
upon their later history. Because of the lack of homo- 
geneity in the membership of the church at Crefeld, 
trouble arose, which reinforced the appeals of the Cre- 
felders in America to the Dunkers in Crefeld to emigrate 
thither. 

Environmental conditions had assembled Anabaptist 
people at Crefeld and at Schwarzenau. After they unit- 
ed with the Dunkers, a new set of stimuli was brought to 
bear. The Dunkers at once began to hold before them 
the ideal of unity. This tended to confirm them in their 
decision, and further to differentiate them from their 
neighbors. But the ideal of unity was held with varying 
degrees of earnestness by different members. They had 
come together from different parts of the country and 
had been exposed to various influences. Thus, Christian 
Libe had been subjected to a harsher treatment than 
most of the others. He had been banished from Basle, 
Switzerland, as an Anabaptist. He had been forced to 
work on a galley for two years because of his return 
thither to preach his beliefs and to baptize.* This harsh 
treatment had engendered an austerity of spirit that 

*See "Chronicon Ephratense," p 248; Mueller, "Geschichte d. Bern. 
Taeufer," p 226. 



88 THE DUNKERS IN E TIB OPE 

heterogeneity in the social composition of the church 
tended to bring to expression. Dissension produced 
further differences among those left at Crefeld, as it did 
also among those that came to America. It prevented 
the congregation left at Crefeld from presenting its ideals 
so effectively to those that had not yet united with it. It 
is only when heterogeneity is on the whole subordinate 
to a dominant homogeneity that progress without disrup- 
tion is possible. In Becker's party that went to Amer- 
ica homogeneity, though imperfect, prevailed. 

With the Schwarzenau congregation the conditions were 
different. In the first place, the homogeneity of the soc- 
ial group was greater. Then during the twelve years of 
growth, undisturbed by internal dissension, opportunity 
was given for Mack to impress his ideal upon the con- 
gregation, and thus make the homogeneity yet greater. 
Finally, persecution, suffered in common, bound the mem- 
bership more closely together, so that Mack's ideal of 
unity was realized. Heterogeneity of the population in 
the region about Schwarzenau accounts for the emigra- 
tion thence, while the consciousness of their kinship with 
the Dunkers already in America, coupled with the great- 
er religious and economic opportunities there, explains 
the emigration of the congregation from Friesland.* 

*See Spencer, "First Principles," Sec. 174. Also, Giddings, "Principles 
of Sociology," p 400 f, and his "Theory of Social Causation," in Publications 
of the American Economic Assoc, Third Series, Vol. V, Part II. 



PART II THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 



CHAPTER I. 



Social Conditions in America Bearing on 
Population.- 

The difference between social conditions in Europe and 
in America created an unstable equilibrium that made 
movement in the line of least resistance inevitable. We 
have noticed the condition of society in Europe, which 
accounts for the emigration of the Bunkers. We must 
now examine in some detail the conditions in America, 
which determined where they should go, when they 
decided to leave Europe. These general social conditions 
may be classed under three heads, Political, Economic 
and Religious. 

1. Political Conditions in America, with Special 
Reference to Conditions in Pennsylvania. 

The despotism of Europe furnished the occasion, at 
least, for the foundation of the free American colonies. 
Almost all the colonies were founded by men and for 
men who were fleeing from despotism. However, among 
the colonies there were vast differences in respect to the 
liberty granted to the inhabitants. For example, the 
political liberty enjoyed by the middle colonies, especially 
by Maryland and Pennsylvania, was much greater than 
was that of most of the New England colonies. This was 
due to the fact that the charters granted to the proprie- 
tors "went farther toward guaranteeing the existence of 



90 THE D UNKEBS IN AMERICA 

legislatures within the colonies than did those which 
created the corporations".* 

This democratic tendency was strongest in Pennsylva- 
nia. Penn himself was not of royal blood. He belonged 
by birth to the great middle class. By religion he was 
associated with a sect that drew most of its recruits, not 
from the aristocracy, but from the middle and lower 
classes of society. 

Penn identified himself with the colonists to an extent 
never attempted in any other country or colony, f He 
never attempted to restrict political rights to the mem- 
bers of his own sect, as political liberty was restricted to 
members of the dominant sect in Massachusetts, for 
example. And unlike Carolina and Maryland at certain 
periods, Pennsylvania was never domineered politically by 
its proprietor. Further as contrasted with the procedure 
in Maine and in Carolina, the scheme of government for 
Penn's Colony was submitted for approval to the colo- 
nists. The Council instead of being appointed, was 
elected. This was an exception to the general rule in the 
colonies, except in the Caroiinas and the Jerseys, where 
it was an elective body in a qualified way. The acts 
of this Council the governor had no right to veto. There 
was, moreover, an elective Assembly, or lower house, 
which, while it could not originate legislation, could ratify 
or refuse to ratify measures proposed by the Council. 

It should be noticed further that in 1696, in Markham's 
Frame of Government, the right was given to the Assem- 
bly to initiate legislation. X Iu spite of the fact that, 
when Penn returned in 1700, he declared that the frame 

*See Osgood, "American Colonies in the 17th Century," 2:74, 254 f. 

tlbid, p 256. Also, Pastorius' Letter, quoted in Peunypacker, 'Settle- 
ment of Germantown," p 85. 

{Osgood, "American Colonies, etc.," 2:275; Cf. "Colonial Records," 1:48, 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS 91 

of government granted by Markham had been only a 
temporary expedient during his absence and that the old 
frame of government of 1683 was again in force, the 
CouDcil decided to take what was best in both the old 
frame and Markham 's frame and construct a new scheme 
of government. The result was the Charter of Privi- 
leges, passed in 1701, and confirmed by Penn.* By this 
charter the Assernbty was made the only house of legis- 
lation, while the Council became an appointive body, 
without legislative power, but with power to act simply 
as an advisory board to the governor. Thus at the begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century, Pennsylvania, more than 
any other colony, had placed political power in the hands 
of the colonists. 

It was in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that the 
establishment of courts was first placed in the hands of 
the legislature. In most of the other colonies that power 
was in the hands of the executive, f 

While, therefore, in some of the other colonies the 
procedure was more regular, in Pennsylvania there was 
a nearer approach to democracy. Political liberty there 
was of wider extent than elsewhere, both as regards the 
franchise and also as regards the power of the people's 
representatives in shaping the government. 

Most important of all was the attitude of the proprietor 
himself to his province. No other proprietor set out 
with such avowed democratic aims as did Penn. None 
conceived of his duties in such an ethically paternalistic 
fashion as he. Consciously Penn had aimed to make for 
the colony a government that should have primarily as 
its end, not his own personal power, glory or wealth, but 

*-'CoJonial Records," 2:56 f. 
tOsgood, "American Colonies," 2:287. 



92 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

"the good and benefit of the freeman of the province".* 
The Province was his only that he might make the inhab- 
itants of it freer, and give them, conditions where they 
could live as brothers, and where they could have oppor- 
tunity to realize their best and highest ideals. Primarily 
not money or power was Penn's aim, but to provide free- 
dom from those conditions, political, economic and relig- 
ious, that made the Old World a hard place for the com- 
mon people to live in. In his own words Penn's Colony 
was "a holy experiment". As such it made a strong ap- 
peal to all who were sufferers from despotism in Europe. 

2. Economic Conditions in Pennsylvania. 
In a new and wild land, where industries are in their 
infancy, where commerce is undeveloped and money is 
scarce, one hardly expects good economic conditions. 
In Pennsylvania at the beginning of the eighteenth 
century there was little wealth. But bad as were 
the conditions here, they were better than in those parts 
of Europe from which the immigrants came. Money was 
worth much more than in Europe. That is to say, it 
would buy more. On the other hand, the price of land 
was low, which was a primary condition of prosperity for 
the poor agricultural peasants of Europe. About 1717 in 
Eastern Pennsylvania, where land was considered very 
high in price, the agent of George I. quoted it at from 20 
to 100 pounds sterling per 100 acres, t Penn offered land 
to all who would come at the rate of 100 acres for 40 shil- 
lings, or, what Fiske says was equivalent to between $40 
and $50, subject only to the quit rent of one shilling per 
100 acres per annum.:): In 1736, 147 acres of land near 

* "Colonial Records of Pennsylvania," 1:58, 63; also "Charter and Laws," 
p 515. 
tQuoted in Pennypacker, "Historical and Biographical Sketches," p 187. 

tPiske, "Dutch and Quaker Colonies, " 2:154. 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 93 

Ephrata, Lancaster county, were sold for 66 pounds, 3 
shillings, subject to the "usual allowance of 6 per cent, for 
roads and highways. In 1754 this same parce] of ground 
sold for 600 pounds.* In 1732, 500 acres, on which Lan- 
caster is now situated, sold for 31 pounds, 10 shillings, t 
In 1717, Penn's commissioners conveyed '400 acres of 
land in Springtown Manor, Chester county, for 40 pounds. % 
In 1701, Logan sold for Penn 1000 acres in East Jersey 
for 300 pounds.** In his prospectus to settlers and advent- 
urers Penn set his price at 100 pounds sterling for each 
5000 acres, subject to the quit rent of 1 shilling for each 
100 acres per annum. He also offered to give to each mas- 
ter who brought over servants, 50 acres for every ser- 
vant brought over, when the latter's time had expired, 
with a quit rent of 2 shillings per annum. To those who 
could not afford to buy land Penn offered to rent land at 
the rate of 200 acres, which was the maximum to be rent- 
ed to any one man, for 1 pence per acre per annum, ft 
Penn sold to Thomas Woolwich of Stafford, England, on 
March 22, 1681, 1000 acres for 20 pounds and the quit rent 
of 1 shilling per annum for each 100 acres, and on July 
27, 1681, 500 acres more at the same rate.^ These ex- 
amples will serve to give us a fairly accurate conception 
of the prices of land that prevailed in the various per- 
iods of German immigration. 

The following lists of prices of products at the dates 

^Original deeds in possession of the Trustees of the Society of Seventh 
Day Baptists at Ephrata, Penna. 

fSener, "Lancaster Townstead," in Lancaster County His. Soc, Histor- 
cal Papers, 5:122. 

tSener, 'Lancaster Townstead" in Lancaster County His. Soc, Histor- 
ical Papers, 5:124. 

**Memoirs of Penna. His. Soc, 9:68. 

ffHazard, "Annals," 1:510, 518, 523. 

ttlbid, 1:501. 



94 THE DUNKEBS IN AMERICA 

given are interesting as showing some of the economic 
conditions which prevailed in Pennsylvania in those ear- 
ly days:* 

1683: 

3 Milch Cows with their calves . . 10 pounds , s. d. 

Yoke of Oxen 8 " 

Brood Mare 5 " 

Two Young Sows and Boar 1 ", 10 s 

Wheat . .3 s 6 d.per bu. 

Oats 2 s " " 

Barrel of Molasses 1 k pounds. 

Beef and Pork 2d per pound. 

Spirits per gal 2 s 

Provisions for one yr. for family of five, 16 lbs. 17 s 6d. 

1686: 

Wheat 3 s, English 

money, or 3 s, 6 d, American money 

Pork 2 d per lb. 

Beef 3i d " " 

Wheat 3 s 6 d per bu . 

Rye i crown " u 

Indian Corn 2 s " " 

1687: 

Pork, per lb 2£ s. 

Butter 6 d. 

Rye, perbu 3 s8gro., icr. 

Wheat 3 s or 3 s. 6d. 

Indian Corn 7 groats and 2s 

Lime 6 d. 

1690: 

Wheat 3 s per bushel. 

Barley 2 s " i{ 

Oats 2s " " 

Indian Corn 18 d. " " 

Cow and Calf less than 4 lbs. 

Good brood mare 5 pounds. 

Beef 12 s per cwt. 

Pork /. 15 s ■« " 

Fat Deer l£ s each. 

*-'Penna. Mag. His. and Biog." 4:447 f. 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 95 

Tn Philadelphia, 1766:* 

Irish Sheeting. . 2s 3d per yd. 

Wide Linen check 2 s 5 d per ell. 

Wide Irish Linen 3sld per yd . 

Finer Irish Linen 3 s 9 d " " 

Narrow worsted binding for cloths 12 s 6 d pr. gro. 

Bird eye gartering 1 lb pr. gross. 

Women's clocked (?) worsted hose. llbl8spr.doz. 

Men's grey worsted hose No. 6 1" " " " 

" " " "finerNo.7 2" 4s" " 

Tailor's colored thread 5s 6d per lb. 

Pins No. 12 5 s 6 d pr. pkt. 

Gross, Sleeve buttons No. 1 7 s. 

Ibid No. 2 8 s. 

Ibid No. 3 8 s 12 d 

Beaver coating per yd 6 s 1 d 

Black trunk 15 s 

In 1771 Corn was 4 s per bu., Wheat, 5 s per bu.t 
In 1748 the salary of a school teacher was, U A free 
dwelling in part of the school house, use of part of the 
school lot, ten cords of wood, half being hickory, and the 
sum of 10 pounds in silver, "t Keith's salary in the 
Friend's School in Philadelphia," was 50 pounds per an- 
num with a house for his family to live in, a school house 
provided, and the profits of the school besides for one 
year. For two years more his school was to be made 
worth 120 pounds per anaum."** 

These are sufficient to illustrate the opportunities that 
Pennsylvania offered to agriculturists as compared with 
the low wages of laborers, and the high prices of land in 

•Bgle's "Notes and Queries," 3rd Series, 2:108. 

TBrumbaugh "His. of Brethren," 284. 

^Quoted in Lancaster His. Papers in "Lancaster His. Soc. Proceedings," 
3:100. 

**Proud's "Pennsylvania", 1:345. For further contemporary accounts of 
the economic condition of Pennsylvania at about this time see, Gabriel 
Thomas', account quoted in Hart's "American History Told by Contempor- 
aries," 2:65-65, and an extract from Richard Castleman's "Voyage, Ship- 
wreck and Miraculous Escape," Ibid, 2:74-77. 



96 THE D UNKEBS IN AMERICA 

the Rhine countries of Germany. From the very dis- 
trict whence came the Schwarzenau Bunkers a traveler 
so late as 1845 could write, "He (the traveler) will on this 
excursion observe with pleasure an absence of total des- 
titution in any class of the inhabitants; but that a large 
portion of the population stands on the verge of great 
poverty, while a still greater number is involved in pri- 
vations inseparable from the increase of mouths without 
a corresponding augmentation of the field of labor, will 
not escape him Here we shall only re- 
mark, that, for want of other occupations, the wages of 
the laborers are exceedingly low, averaging from 10 d to 
1 s per diem for men, and 7 d to 8 d for women. If food 
be given, 10 kreutzers, or 3i d is all that is added in mon- 
ey. On the larger farms 4 pounds per annum is the pay 
of the farm servants, whose board is valued at 5 pounds. 
Prom this and the adjacent districts the greatest number 

of emigrants proceed annually to America 

A few years back the estimate of the rental of the famil : 
ies of Handshuhshein, according to which they were tax- 
ed, averaged 180 florins, or 15 pounds, for each house- 
hold, as revenue drawn from the land and the occupa- 
tions that it furnished. We have seen that in this village 
378 landowners possessed 1400 Heildelberg morgens: the 
average was therefore, to each nearly 4 morgens, or some- 
thing less than 4 English acres. "* Compared with such 
conditions the conditions of life in Pennsylvania were 
very promising. The immigrants had plenty of land 
from which they could easily secure a livelihood. If they 

*T. C. Banfield, "Industry on the Rhine.- Agriculture. " p 208 f. This lit- 
tle book is one of the most interesting- 1 have found in giving definite infor- 
mation as to agricultural conditions in Germany. It is, however, a descrip- 
tion of conditions at more than a century later than the time of which we 
are treating, when it might be expected that the heavy emigration of the 
previous sixty years had made labor scarcer and land more abundant. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 97 

could not buy the land, they could rent it. If they had 
no money to buy tools and with which to begin farming, 
they could easily find work with others who had.* The 
necessities of life abounded in plenty by the time the 
Dunkers arrived. 

It must be remembered also that in Europe these 
peasant folk were not used to much money, and especially 
during the latter part of their history there they had not 
been able to get more than the bare necessities of life. 
For example, many of them did not have money enough 
to pay their passage way to Pennsylvania, f Numbers of 
them got over through the assistance of either the 
Mennonites of Holland or the English Quakers, or by hav- 
ing themselves and their children sold as "Redemption - 
ers" after they got here to pay the ship master for 
bringing them. £ 

More important, perhaps, as stimuli of immigration 
than the actual economic conditions were the advertise- 
ments that Penn caused to be scattered broadcast in 
Germany, and that later Queen Anne, and King George 
I. , still later, sent throughout the districts of the Rhine 
countries to induce the persecuted but sturdy Germans 
to emigrate to America.** 

The statement of George I. is the latest of these, and 
is interesting as showing the very attractive way in which 
the advantages of America were presented. Itwasprepar 
ed for the special purpose of advertising the lands in west- 

*Cf. Pennypacker, "His. and Biog. Sketches," p 185, 188. 
tPennypacker, "Historical and Biographical Sketches" p 190. 
jNass' letter quoted in Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 122. 

**See "Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography", 4:331; also 
Sachse, "The Fatherland", inPeuna. German Soc. Proceedings 7:162,175. 
Rupp in "History of Lancaster County", p 97, 98 quotes Queen Anne's 
proclamation. Cf. "Journal of the House of Commons", 16:597. 



98 TEE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

era Pennsylvania. In this advertisement he contrasts 
the conditions in western Pennsylvania with the con- 
ditions in Europe and also with the less favorable con- 
ditions of eastern Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and 
the Carolinas. He describes the western part of Penn- 
sylvania as a land that has a good climate, pure air 
and that offers almost every advantage desired by 
immigrants. * 

To this glowing description was attached the offer that 
each family should have fifty acres of land in fee simple, 

*He says that "it is well-watered, having streams, brooks and springs, 
and the soil has the reputation of being better than any that can be found 
in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Walnut, chestnut, oak and mulberry trees 
grow naturally in great profusion, as well as many fruit-bearing trees, and 
the wild white and purple grapes in the woods are larger and better than 
in any other place in America. The soil is favorable for wheat, barley, 
rye, Indian corn, hemp, flax, and also silk, besides producing many other 
things much more abundantly than in Germany. A field can be planted 
for from ten to twenty successive years without manure. It is also very 
suitable for such fruit as apples, pears, cherries, prunes, quinces and es- 
pecially peaches, which grow unusually well and bear fruit in three years 
from the planting of the stone. All garden crops do very well, and vine- 
yards can be made, since the wild grapes are good and would be still bet- 
ter if they were dressed and pruned. Many horses, cattle and sheep can 
be raised and kept, since an excellent grass grows exuberantly. Numbers 
of hogs can be fattened on the wild fruits in the bushes. This land is also 
full of cattle -(rundvee), called buffaloes and elks, none of which are seen 
in Pennsylvania, Virginia or Carolina. Twenty or thirty of these buffa- 
loes are found together. There are also many bears, which hurt no one. 
They feed upon leaves and wild fruits, on which they get very fat, and 
their flesh is excellent. Deer exist in great numbers, besides Indian cocks 
and hens (turkeys), which weigh from twenty to thirty pounds each, wild 
pigeons, more than in any other place in the world, partridges, pheasants, 
wild swans and geese, all kinds of ducks, and many other small fowls and 
animals; so that if the settlers can only supply themselves for the first year 
with bread, some cows for milk and butter, and vegetables, such as pota- 
toes, peas, beans, etc., they can find flesh enough to eat from the many wild 
animals and birds, and can live better than the richest nobleman. The only 
difficulty is that they will be about thirty miles from the sea; but this, 
by good management, can be made of little consequence",— Pennypacker, 
"Historical and Biographical Sketches", p 186 f, 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 99 

and for the first ten years the use of as much more as 
they might want without charge, save the yearly rent of 
two shillings for each hundred acres. Furthermore, the 
settlers were not to be accounted foreigners, but allowed 
to possess the land as much as though they had been born 
there. They were to have the same privileges of relig- 
ious worship as the Reformed and the Lutherans. 

Such a land and such an offer appealed to the pover- 
ty-stricken, oppressed and persecuted sectarians of Ger- 
many with almost irresistible power. When to such 
inducements were added the letters of friends already in 
eastern Pennsylvania, telling of its opportunities, and 
the solicitations of land companies, already described, it 
is small wonder that in the years between 1719 and 1737 
there was such a stream of emigrants from western Eu- 
rope as was never before known. 

Life was not all ease in this new land, but it was easier 
than in Germany. While some felt that the hardships 
incident to the emigration and settlement in Pennsylvan- 
ia were too great for the benefits to be reaped, most were 
convinced that by diligence a good living could be made. 
Those that were in Pennsylvania did well for the most 
part. In 1733 John Nass could say of the Dunkers u they 
are all well off:".* Thus, the economic conditions in 
America at this time were very attractive. 

3. Religious Conditions in Pennsylvania. 
The social condition that gave the political and econom- 
ic forces an opportunity to make their appeals to these 
sturdy Germans was the religious condition of Pennsyl- 
vania. The butcheries ordered by Louis XIV in 1674 
and 1688, of the inhabitants of the countries bordering 
on France, especially of the Palatinate, had created hor- 
ror throughout Europe. The oppression of the Mennon- 

*Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 120. 



100 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

ites and other sectarians in Switzerland had not only re- 
sulted in driving most of these people from the persecut- 
ing countries but had induced many minds to question 
the expedience of the persecutions. The story of the 
sufferings of these Germans stirred the Quakers in Eng- 
land, who themselves had experienced the oppression of 
the state. William Penn had himself known what it is to 
be imprisoned for conscience' sake. His own experiences 
and the reports of the persecutions on the Continent 
settled within him the conviction that no country should 
persecute its subjects for a religious belief, so long as 
that belief did not interfere with the functions of the 
state. Hence, when the King of England paid a debt 
that he owed to Penn's father with a large grant of land 
in America, and an opportunity was thus given to Penn 
to found a colony on principles according to his own con- 
victions, he determined that there should be no oppres- 
sion within its borders for the sake of religious belief. 

As early as 1677 Penn entertained significant ideas of 
religious liberty. In his letter to the Elector Palatine 
in that year he set forth these conceptions in the clearest 
possible manner.* This ideal of religious liberty Penn 

*"In the first place, I do with all sincere and Christian respect acknowl- 
edge and commend that indulgence thou givest to all people professing" 
religion, dissenting from the oational communion; for it is in itself a most 
natural, prudent and Christian thing. 

"Natural, because it preserves nature from being made a sacrifice to the 
savage fury of fallible, yet proud opinions; outlawing men of parts, arts, 
industry and honesty, the grand requisites of human society, and exposing 
them and their families to utter ruin for mere nonconformity, not to 
religion, but to modes and fashions in religion. 

"Christian, since the contrary expressly contradicteth both the precept 
and example of Christ, who taught us 'to love enemies, not abuse our 
friends, and triumph in the destruction of our harmless neighbor'. He 
rebuked his disciples, when they wished for fire from heaven upon dissen- 
ters, it may be opposers; certainly, then he never intended that they should 
kindle 'fire upon earth to devour men for conscience'. And if Christ, to 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 101 

had had incorporated into the Constitutions that preced- 
ed the Frame of Government. In these he says, "Every 
person that doth, or shall reside therein, shall have and 
enjoy the free profession of his, or her faith, and exer- 
cise of worship toward God, in such way and manner as 
every person shall in conscience believe is most accept- 
able to God."* 

In the laws confirmatory of his Frame of Government, 
passed in England, Art. 35, it is provided as follows: 

"That all persons living in this province, who confess 

whom all power is given, and his holy apostles refused to employ human 
force and artifice so much as to conserve themselves, it is an arrogancy ev- 
ery way indefensible in those that pretend to be their followers, that they 
assume an authority to supersede, control and contradict the precepts and 
examples of Christ and his apostles; whose kingdom, not being- of the 
nature of this ambitious, violent world, was not erected or maintained by 
those weapons that are carnal, but spiritual and intellectual, adequate to 
the nature of the soul, and mighty through God to cast down the strong- 
holds of sin, and every vain imagination exalted in man above the lowly, 
meek fear of God, that ought to have the preeminence in the hearts of the 
sons of men. 

"Indulgence is prudent, in that it preserveth concord: no kingdom 
divided against itself can stand. It encourageth arts, parts and industry, 
to show and improve themselves, which are indeed the ornaments, strength 
and wealth of a country; it encourageth people to transplant into this 
land of liberty, where the sweat of the brow in not made the forfeit of the 
conscience. 

''And, lastly, it rendereth the prince peculiarly safe and great. Safe, 
because all interests, for interest sake, are bound to love and court him: 
great, in that he is not governed or clogged by the power of his clergy, 
which in most countries is not only a coordinate power, a kind duumvirate- 
ship in government, imperium in imperio, at least an eclipse to monarchy, 
but a superior power, and rideth the prince to their designs, holding the 
helm of the government, and steering not by the laws of civil freedom, 
but by certain ecclesiastical maxims of their own, to the maintenance and 
enlargement of their worldly empire in their church; and all this villany 
acted under the sacred, peaceable, and alluring name of Christ, his min- 
istry and church: though as remote from their nature, as the wolf from 
the sheep, and the Pope from Peter".— "Select Works", 3:436, 437. 

*Hazard, u Annals", 1:573; Penn's "Works" 1:122 f. 






102 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

and acknowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God, to 
be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world, and 
that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peace- 
ably and justly in civil society, shall in no wise be moles- 
ted or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or 
practice in matters of faith and worship ; nor shall they 
be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any 
religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever."* 

This proclamation of liberal ideas in Penn's advertise- 
ments of his new Colony, doubtless, had much to do in 
attracting the persecuted sectarians of Holland, Germany 
and Switzerland, f 

Penn found ready hearers among the Mennonites and 
Anabaptists of Holland and Germany, as is attested by 
his "Journal" of travels in those countries.:); That his 
business was not limited to the preaching of Quakerism 
is shown by the fact that it was on these visits that he 
disposed of a large tract of land in Pennsylvania to some 
Cref elders, and that his visit led to the formation of the 
Frankfort Land Company. The chief appeal was, doubt- 
less the religious liberty that could be eD joyed there.** 

Puthe'rmore, Penn went about the business of getting 
colonists from Holland and Germany in a systematic 
manner. Benjamin Furley, a Quaker from England, had 
migrated to Holland, and married there, was in business 
there, and was a man of considerable influence in that 
country. He had made it his concern to interest himself 
in the Quakers that lived in Germany and the adjacent 
states, to protect them in their interests, and to help 

■Hazard, "Annals", 1:573. 

fSee list of such advertisements given by Diffenderfer and Sachse in 
"Penna. German Soc. Proceedings", 7:362, 175; also "Penna. Magazine of 
His. and Biog.", 4:331. 

$ "Select Works", 2:400 f. 

**Pennypacker, "Historical and Biographical Sketches", p 11. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 10S 

them emigrate to the Quaker Colony. This man was 
Perm's agent at Rotterdam, and assisted in spreading 
abroad the advertisements of America.* 

When the Dunkers had come to the point in their his- 
tory where they were ready to leave Germany and Hol- 
land, all this was ancient his tor y. Since 1682 there had 
been Mennonites in Pennsylvania from Crefield. Pasto- 
rius and others had been sending back reports to their 
friends in Germany, f These letters, and the persistent 
advertising that both Penn and the English Crown had 
been putting into circulation in Germany about Pennsyl- 
vania had made the conditions of religious freedom to be 
found there well known to the Dunkers. Hence, in an 
age when religious liberty was only a fitful reality, at the 
best, and dependent on the whim of the ruler, or the exi- 
gencies of politics, the formulation of such a proposition 
as Penn's with the avowed purpose of putting it into exe- 
cution marked a distinct advance in democratic govern- 
ment, and the widespread advertisement of the plan con- 
stituted a strong inducement for the Dunkers to emigrate 
to this land of religious freedom. 

4. Influence of these Conditions on the Demotic 
Composition in Pennsylvania. 

These conditions determined two interesting social 
facts in the population of Pennsylvania of that time, viz: 
(1) that the population was a likeminded one on most mat- 
ters; (2) that it was a heterogeneous population as re- 
gards its likemindedness on minor religious matters, 
which at that time assumed so large a place in men's 
thoughts. 

*See Pennypacker, "Settlement of Germantown, " p 2, and "Furley" in 
Index, 
tlbid, p 51 f . 



104 THE D TINKERS IN AMERICA 

From the nature of the case only persons socially quite 
alike responded to the appeals that the new Colony made. 
Those that responded to these stimuli were alike in 
race, social station, economic condition and, to a large 
degree, in faith. 

In race the Bunkers, Mennonites and Quakers origin- 
ally belonged to the same ethnic stock, -Teutonic. Penn's 
mother was Dutch. The persecutions of the Men- 
nonites and Anabaptists of Holland and Germany had 
driven many of them to England where they had become 
Quakers. That Penn in all his sj^mpathies was a Teuton 
is shown by the heartiness with which he was received 
by the Germans and the Dutch in his journeys on the 
Continent in 1677- * 

The political and economic conditions of all these peo- 
ple that came to Pennsylvania were much alike. All had 
been persecuted by their respective governments, t 
They all belonged to the middle and lower classes of so- 
ciety, which had neither in England nor on the Continent 
any political rights that the governments were bound to 
respect. 

Between the Dunkers and Mennonites there was even 
a greater degree of social likeness. The only differences 
concerned minor points of religious doctrine. They 
were from the same parts of Germany. Social inter- 
course had been common between the two sects. A Dun- 
ker preacher preached for the Mennonites in Germany.:}: 
Common sufferings in various parts of Europe had driv- 
en Mennonites and Dunkers together, and had assisted 
the social assimilation and even amalgamation that con- 

*See his Journal in "Select Work," p 400 f. 
f'Chronicon Ephratense," p 3, 22, 248. 
Jlbid, p 249. 



RELI0I0U8 CONDITIONS 105 

tiguity was promoting.* Economically, the Dunkers and 
Mennonites belonged to the same classes. For the most 
part they were farmers and weavers. 

In religious beliefs the Duakers, Quakers and Mennon- 
ites were very much akin. Their differences were, for 
the most part, on questions of emphasis. All believed it 
the duty of Christians to refuse to bear arms, to take 
oaths, and to be separate from the world in dress and 
customs. Dunkers and Mennonites especially held be- 
liefs in common, the Washing of Feet as a rite of the 
church, the Salutation of the kiss between brethren, and 
the necessity of the Ban in church discipline. 

Moreover, these three sects had their origin in the 
same general movement, the Dunkers and Quakers being, 
in part, historical variations of the sectarian movement 
of which Mennonism was an earlier manifestation. 

All these circumstances, these points of similarity in 
customs, in racial characteristics, in class feeling, their 
coming from the same localities, their mutual acquaint- 
anceship, and their common beliefs conspired to make 
them all recognize their mental and practical resem- 
blance. All these tended, before proximit}^ had made 
them conscious of their differences, to cause them to 
recognize their agreements. They felt that they were 
kindred peoples, f 

Hence, at the distance of two continents everything 
made the Dunkers feel that in Pennsylvania, of all places, 
they would find a people most like themselves, and a place 
of refuge and opportunity. 

Although the Dunkers did not see them before they ar- 

*See Moeller, "Church History," 3:465; Goebei, "Geschichfce d. Christli- 
chen Lebens," 2:740. 

tGoebel, "Geschichte d.Christlichen Lebens," 2:740f; Of. Mack, "A Plain 
View, etc.," p 72 f; Also "Chronicon Ephratense," p 249, and Pennypack- 
er, "His. and Biog. Sketches," 26 f, 181 n. 



106 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

rived in America, there were differences in the popula- 
tion that assembled in Pennsylvania. All the parties 
concerned became increasingly aware of these differences 
in the years that followed the arrival of the various ele- 
ments of the population. On the whole the population 
was homogeneous. But it was just heterogeneous enough 
to promote discussion and a mild sort of conflict. This 
unlikeness was due to the minor differences in religious 
beliefs, in church organization, in social mind and habits 
of life that had developed from inherited tendencies, and 
in the differing environments of their former places of 
abode. Contiguity exaggerated these small differences. 
It took time and acquaintance to modify these differences 
and to make the people more homogeneous. It is these 
minor differences that come to expression in the strife 
between the Dunkers and Mennonites and Quakers in the 
years that followed the settlement of the Dunkers in Ger- 
mantown. The consciousness of these social differences 
conditioned the lack of social cooperation that character- 
ized this early period of the history of Pennsylvania. It 
was promoted by the lack of easy and cheap intercom- 
munication between the different settlements. It pro- 
duced a condition of social isolation that helps us to ex- 
plain much in the early history of the Dunkers in America. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Early History op The Dunkers in America: 
Sociological Interpretation. 

Such conditions existing in America determined the 
settlement of the Dunkers there and influenced their ear- 
ly history in Pennsylvania. Conditions in Europe deter- 
mined their emigration; the situation in America, having 
come to their knowledge, determined that Pennsylvania 
should be the scene of the beginning of the second period 
in their development. 

1. Origin op the Dunker Church in America. 

The Dunker church in America grew out of the Cref eld 
congregation in Prussia. In 1719 in response to the mo- 
tives already noticed, Becker's company of about twenty 
persons emigrated to Philadelphia, and settled near Ger- 
mantown. This was the first company of Dunkers to 
land on American soil. They found among the German 
Mennonites, already here, many persons known in the old 
home. 

The most striking fact in the history of the Dunkers 
during the first two years after the arrival of this first 
party, is that there was no organization of the church. 
They were not a church, simply members of the Crefeld 
congregation scattered about the various settlements 
around Germantown as a centre. Apparently, their mi- 
gration to America had been induced largely by economic 
motives, for the members of the company were not 
agreed concerning the troubles that had taken place at 
Crefeld, some taking the side of Hoecker and others 
that of Libe. Hence, they were not a social unit. There 
was something of the same consciousness of unlikeness 
among them as caused the rupture at Crefeld. Conse- 
quently, any sort of social organization was impossible. 



108 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

There was a homogeneity among them, but it was not 
pronounced enough at first to allow them to cooperate in 
an organization. 

Three circumstances, separation from each other, the 
passage of time, and contact with social elements in the 
population of the country unlike themselves, put an end 
to this condition of affairs. The first put an end 
to the bickering that engenders strife. As Professor 
Ross has noted, the social process often promotes con 
sciousness of unlikeness by bringing slight differences 
to expression by contact. % The isolation of the Dunkers 
in their new homes worked in the opposite direction. It 
alleviated the acute condition of social strife by doing 
away with the favoring circumstances. The second, the 
passage of time, tended to bring about the same result. 
This allowed these discordant elements opportunity to 
forget their unlikeness. They could not see each other 
often, and when they did, the space of time that inter- 
vened caused them to recognize and enjoy their likenesses 
rather than to dwell upon their points of difference. The 
third, contact with members of other sects, emphasized 
the effect of the second. By contact with the Quakers, 
Mennonites, the Lutherans and the Reformed in their 
vicinity the Dunkers became conscious of differences be- 
tween themselves and these other social elements. Prox- 
imity emphasized unlikeness that distance hid from view. 
But by becoming aware of the fact that they were unlike 
the other social elements, the Dunkers became conscious 
of a social likeness among themselves. This contact 
with others, thus, developed a consciousness of kind. 
The result was that after about two years the conscious- 
ness of likeness was so far developed among them that it 
demanded expression. 

^'Foundations of Sociology," p 96. 



EARLY HISTORY 109 

White these stimuli of their environment were work- 
ing the same results in all the Dunkers, Becker was re- 
sponding to them most heartily and most rapidly. There- 
fore, it was Becker that first of all came to the conclu- 
sion that the disorganized condition of the Dunkers must 
be remedied, and undertook the first "visitation", in the 
interests of harmony and unity among the scattered 
Dunkers. This was in 1722, when with two companions, 
he undertook a journey, or "visitation," to the scattered 
members about Germantown, in order to bring about 
some sort of association.* These men visited the mem- 
bers that lived in the region known as Skippack, Falck- 
ner's Swamp, and Oley. This "visitation" had much to 
do with the settlement of differences, with allaying the 
unpleasant feelings, and in promoting that social like- 
mindedness that resulted in the revival of religion, among 
these Dunkers and in the beginning of their social de- 
velopment in America. 

The visit gave opportunity to all the scattered Dunkers 
to express their recognition of likeness, which had been 
growing for two years. Moreover, Becker had become 
possessed of an ideal, viz., the organization of all these 
likeminded people into a society in which the desire for 
sympathy and brotherly affection could be realized. To 
the other Dunkers, this ideal became a stimulus to which 
they responded favorably. That organization made pos- 
sible further progress. 

In the autumn of that year, the Dunkers, of whom 
Becker continued to be the leading spirit for some time, 
began to hold meetings in Germantown, at the homes of 
Becker and Gomorry. These meetings continued, until 
the winter prohibited the attendance of those that lived 
any distance from Germantown. During the winter of 

*"Chronicon Ephratense," p 21 f. 



110 THE DUNKER8 IN AMERICA 

1723 the meetings were held at weekly intervals. In the 
autumn of 1723 a rumor got abroad among the Germans 
on the Skippack that Christian Li be, the preacher that 
had occasioned the trouble at Crefeld, and who was the 
minister in charge there, had arrived in Philadelphia 
from Germany. In order to meet him a number of peo- 
ple from the Schuylkill country went to Philadelphia, 
The report turned out to be false, but on the way home 
these people went through German town, and were invited 
by the Germantown Dunkers to remain over Sunday with 
them and attend the meeting. The country people did 
so, and were so much impressed by what they saw and 
heard, that soon afterwards they made a second visit to 
Germantown. The Dunkers, in turn, visited them. The 
result was that these people applied to be received into 
membership at Germantown. 

This application raised an interesting question. Hith- 
erto the members at Germantown had not considered 
themselves a church; they were merely members of the 
Crefeld church. However, after due deliberation, the 
members at Germantown decided to grant the request of 
these friends from the Skippack to be taken into the 
church. The candidates chose Peter Becker to baptize 
them. This first baptism by the Dunkers in America oc- 
curred in the Wissahickon Creek near Germantown on 
Christmas day, 1723.* 

That night was held the first Love Feast, as the service 
in connection with the Eucharist was called, ever held by 
the Dunkers in America, at the house of John Gomorry. 
At this Love Feast I*eter Becker officiated. 

Thus, naturally there grew up an embryo-organization. 

*The names of these people, the first members reesived into the church 
in America, are Martin Urner and his wife (Hausschwester), Henry 
Landis and his wife, Frederick Lang-, and Jan Mayle. — "Chronicon Ephra- 
tense," p 23. 



EARLY HISTORY 111 

There was no formal action taken with the definite pur- 
pose of forming an organized congregation, but when 
this need arose, this body of consciously likeminded 
people assumed the functions of an organization. They 
accepted certain people as members, they allowed one of 
their number to baptize the candidates and they held Love 
Feasts. Here, in contrast with the origin in Europe, we 
see the spontaneous rise of an organization to meet the re- 
quest of applicants for membership. This was the be- 
ginning of Dunker organization in America. Prom that 
beginning step by step has developed the Dunker church 
in America, with her Annual Meeting, her district meet- 
ings, her Sunda}^ school and missionary meetings, and 
her various organizations local to each congregation. The 
first steps towards it began with Peter Becker's efforts 
to visit, and to unite, on the basis of his ideal, the scattered 
members about Germantown. Another step in the same 
direction was taken when unorganized meetings were held 
at various places, at which the things on which the} 7 were 
agreed were emphasized, and their disagreements forgot- 
ten in the zeal that was begotten of their contact with un- 
like elements in the population of that region. But the 
definite step was now first taken. Now there was a Dunker 
church in America. Hitherto, there had been but scat- 
tered members. 

These unusual events among the Dunkers excited the 
curiosity of the people about the neighborhood, and many 
of those attracted to the meetings by curiosity later be- 
came members. All the next summer meetings were 
kept up, until the storms and cold of winter again put a 
stop to them. In the spring of 1725 meetings were begun 
again, with the result "that the whole region round about 
was moved thereby".* The movement assumed the pro- 

* u Chronicon Ephratense," p 23. 



112 D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

portions of a revival. It was a movement among the young 
people especially. The accessions to the church, as well as 
the strange manners and customs of the Dunkers, drew 
the attention of the people round about, so that the Dunk- 
ers' limited accommodations were overcrowded. The 
following summer also the meetings were continued and 
Love Feasts were held frequently. These frequent meet- 
ings, characterized by a ready acceptance of Becker's 
ideal, cultivated mental and moral likeness, which was 
promoted, on the other hand, by the opposition their ac- 
tivity excited. The brethren at Germantown sent letters 
to their friends in Germany, telling them of the "awak- 
ening" that had occurred, and of the good results. This 
correspondence, doubtless, had something to do with 
Mack's coming hither in 1729. 

2. Conrad Beissel and His Influence on the De- 
velopment OF THE DUNKER CHURCH. 

A. Early Period: To his Separation from the Dunkers. 

In the autumn of 1720 a man sailed from Europe, whose 
coming hither was fraught with important consequences, 
in more ways than one, for the Dunker church in America. 
In that year Conrad Beissel, with at least four com- 
panions, arrived at Boston. 

He was born after his father's death and all his early 
years were years of hardship. His mother died when he 
was eight years old, and u from that time on he led a sorry 
life, after the manner of the country, until he was old 
enough to learn a trade' '.* Even after he had learned the 
baker's trade he still was a homeless, dissipated, godless 
man. This hard life made a very deep impression upon his 
sensitive nature. While a citizen of the Palatinate, after 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", p 3. 



EARLY HIST OR T 113 

a dissipated life, he was "awakened", and became a Piet- 
ist.* He knew something of the Dunkers of Schwarzenau, 
but they were too sectarian to suit him. Besides the 
Dunkers, there was another party very much like them 
in that region. This group was what was known as the 
Inspirationists.f With them he worshipped for a time 
after his "awakening". But coming under suspicion 
among them he finally left their party. During this 
period he was under the influence of such mystical writers 
as Boehme. 

After leading a wandering life for some time he decided 
on this journey to America. On his arrival at Boston, he 
made his way to German town. Here he was kindly re- 
ceived by some of the Dunkers. As there was no oppor- 
tunity for a baker to make a living in Pennsylvania, he 
apprenticed himself to Peter Becker to learn the weaver's 
trade. 

While living with Becker, he learned of the disorgan- 
ized and divided condition of the Germantown Dunkers. 
They were not only scattered throughout the settlements, 
but were also divided in sentiment concerning the unfor- 
tunate division at Cref eld, Germany. % Their zeal for the 
cause had been dissipated by their quarrels. The "Chron- 
icon Ephratense" is responsible for the statement that it 
was at Beissel's suggestion that the Dunkers decided to 
have meetings in order to bring about a settlement of the 
difficulties. 

In 1721, after he had completed his year of apprentice- 
ship with Becker, Beissel, in company with Stuntz, one 
of his fellow-travellers from Europe, went into that part 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", p 5. 

f'Chronicon Ephratense", p 1. Doubtless, these were the same as those 
spoken of by 6k>ebel as "Enthusiasts". 

J"Chronicon Ephratense," p 15. 



1U THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

of the wilderness known as the Conestoga country, now 
Lancaster county, and there they set up their solitary 
abode in order to realize Beissel's ideal of a hermitical 
life, which ideal he owed to the influence of such mystics 
as Boehme, Arnold, and Petersen. 

While living here Beissel came into relations with sev- 
eral sects that had great influence on his beliefs. Thus, 
there was a settlement of English Sabbatarians at Nant- 
mill, not far away from his cabin, and he soon adopted 
their beliefs on the question of the Sabbath.* 

Furthermore, his previous tendency to Jewish legalism 
was strengthened by intercourse with a community of 
Jews that had settled in the same valley. With Beissel's 
legalistic conception of the Gospel, and his austerity of 
character, he was prepared to respond favorably to such 
influences, in the absence of any sharp antagonism to 
those that held them. Imitation of those people confirm- 
ed his position on the Sabbath and determined his views 
on the eating of certain meats forbidden by the Mosaic 
legislation, f 

Moreover, during these first two years of residence in 
the wilderness, Beissel in company with Isaac van Be- 
bern had made a journey to the Labadist colony in Mary- 
land. His views on celibacy were like theirs. He agreed 
with them already in his leanings towards ascetic prac- 
tices, and their example found in Beissel a ready imitator, 
not only of their asceticism, but also of their communism. 
These three influences are significant in connection with 
Beissel's views worked out later in his Dunker congrega- 
tion at Conestoga and finally and completely in his com- 
munity at Ephrata. 

*Sachse, "German Sectarians", 1:28, 72; 2:164; "Chronicon Ephratense", 
p 44; Holsing-er, "History of the Tunkers'\ p 136. 

tSachse, "German Sectarians", 1:116. 



EARL Y HIS TOR T 115 

The wilderness environment itself was a favorable en- 
vironment for the development of asceticism, since it 
heightened rather than subdued the ascetic tendencies of 
Beissel. Furthermore, it was only in such surroundings 
that ascetic ideals could thrive. Therefore, the environ- 
ment conditioned the asceticism of Beissel. 

On the other hand, the composition of the population, 
sparse though it was, was homogeneous on broad lines, 
since, on the whole, the German settlers here were from 
the same social class in Europe and had had very similar 
experiences. They had come largely from the Rhine 
countries of Germany and Switzerland. They were men 
and women whom the horrors of war, with its consequen- 
ces, had robbed of gladness, almost of happiness; in 
whom had been engendered, not only a hatred of war, but 
also of material prosperity and of civil power.* It should 
not suprise us, therefore, if Beissel found these people 
easily brought to much the same mind as himself on 

*Here is a German poem by Yiilis Cassel, written about 1665, which 
describes the condition of the Rhine country from which many of these 
people came: 

Dena es ist bekaunt und offenbar, 

Was Jammer, Elend, und Gefahr 
Gewesen ist umher im Land 

Mit Rauben, Pluendern, Mord und Brand. 
Manch Mensch gebracht im Angst und Noth 

Geschaendeliert auch bis zum Tod. 
Zerschlagen verhauen manch schoenes Haus, 

Vielen Leuten die Kleider gezogen aus; 
Getreed und Vieh hinweggefuehrt, 

Viel Jammer und Klaghatman gehoert". — Pennypacker, 
"Historical and Biographical Sketches", p 195. 

And Max Goebel, writing of Wittgenstein, the region whence some of 
them came, says, "Das Land ist rauh, steinigt und'unfruchtbar, sodassnur 
in den niederen Gegenden der Raggen gedeiht und selbst der Hafer und 
die Kartoffel an vielen Orten nur muehsam gewonnen wird; Obst waechst 
nur sparam in den waermeren Thaelern und in sehr geschuetzen Lagen; 
etc.",— "Geschichted. Christlichen Lebens", 2:739. 



US THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

religious matters, when they had been subjected to a 
similarly harsh environment in Europe and now to the 
same wilderness environment in Pennsylvania. That he 
did find it easy to bring a considerable number to his way 
of thinking is indicated by the fact that he had gathered 
about him an incipient congregation of people on the 
broad basis of combatting the irreligious tendencies of 
wilderness life. It was in this population that Beissel 
had promoted the awakening of which the Dunkers heard 
before they visited the district in 1724. In his hut on 
the banks of Mill Creek the Dunkers found him in that 
year living as a "solitary" with Michael Wohlfahrt, 
when they made their second "visitation", referred to 
below, to the people outside of Germantown. 

So successful had the Germantown Dunkers been in 
creating an effective likemindedness in the people of 
Germantown who potentially resembled themselves, that 
soon most of the former had joined them. But with the 
consequent increase of opposition on the part of the 
socially unlike elements of the population, the zeal of the 
Dunkers grew. In the expression of their zeal they 
obeyed the law of least effort and sought those outside 
of Germantown that they believed were like themselves. 
Therefore, the Germantown Dunkers now resolved to 
make a second "visitation". Accordingly, on Oct., 23, 
1724, they started. They visited Skippack, Falckner's 
Swamp, Oley and the new members in the Schuylkill 
country. From there they went on to the Conestoga 
country, where an "awakening" had occurred under the 
influence of Beissel, about the same time as that at 
Germantown, and where there were living some Menno- 
nites, and Separatists.* On November 12th they held a 
meeting at the home of Henry Hoehn. Beissel was 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", p 24. 



EARLY HISTORY 117 

present. Five were baptized as a result of the meeting 
that day, but, although he had contemplated such action, 
Beissel was not among them, because he felt that no one 
of these Dunkers was of greater ability than himself. 
Finally, however, he became convinced, that since Christ 
had allowed himself to be baptized by John the Baptist, 
he should humble himself and be baptized. Accordingly 
a short time afterwards he was baptized by Peter Becker. 
After the baptism a Love Feast was held at Henry 
Hoehn's. Three more were baptized within the week. * 
The new members in the Conestoga country were organ- 
ized into a church. As the Dunkers had not yet developed 
a method of caring for new congregations, when Becker 
and his party left for Germantown, they commended the 
new congregation to the grace of God, and left them to 
their own devices. The members of the congregation 
proceeded by choosing Beissel as their "overseer'' 
(Vorsteher). 

It was a fateful choice, for, while the Germantown 
Dunkers were at Conestoga, they learned of the peculiar 
beliefs of Beissel mentioned above. That made them 
suspicious of his "orthodoxy". Their fears proved well 
founded, for while this congregation remained in com- 
munion with the Germantown congregation for some time, 
Beissel at once began to preach the importance of keep- 
ing the Jewish Sabbath, the superiority of the state of 
celibacy, and the shunning of certain meats for food.f 
He also showed that he was possessed of extraordinary 
powers, which today we should probably term hypnotic. \ 

*However, the revival suddenly stopped, because of the rise of dissension 
over the difficulties that had risen at Cref eld. —Ibid, p 24, 26. 

f'Chronicon Ephratense", p 27; Cf. Sachse, "German Sectarians", 1:116. 

Jlbid, p 35, 36. Doubtless, it was this strange power that had occasioned 
the rumors in the community that he was a sorcerer and a seducer of 
women. In a superstitious age such rumors were accepted at face value 
and helped to raise suspicions against him. 



118 THE D TINKERS IN AMERICA 

It is certain that during all his life he had a strange pow- 
er over women, as well as over many men.* The suspicions 
of the Dunkers are the first indications of a consciousness 
of social unlikeness between Beissel and the Dunkers, 
which consciousness of kind afterwards produced very 
important results. 

However, Beissel was not disturbed in his sway over 
the congregation for some time. His activity, however, 
was not confined to this congregation of the Dunkers. 
Until he finally broke with them in 1728, Beissel held 
meetings among the Dunkers in various places, as a re- 
sult of which many were added to the Dunker church. 
For example, in 1728 he held meetings at Falekner's 
Swamp, and sixteen members were added, and a con- 
gregation organized. He also held revival meetings 
among the members on the Schuylkill at which many 
were added to the church. Moreover, his activity was 
not confined to the Dunkers, but included all the Ger- 
mans in the vicinity. 

For three years the relations between Beissel and the 
Germantown Dunkers were seemingly friendly. But the 
suspicions that had been aroused in the minds of the lat- 
ter on the occasion of their visit to the Conestoga congre- 
gation in 1724, when Beissel was baptized, were never al- 
layed, and the lack of frequent communication prevented 
social assimilation. The absence of mutual confidence 
finally led to an open rupture. It came about in the fol- 
lowing manner: Jacob Stuntz had married a kinswoman. 
Beissel condemned the marriage as improper and had 
Stuntz and his wife put under the ban of the Conestoga 
congregation. In 1727 some of the Dunkers of German- 
town made another "visitation" to this congregation. On 
the way Henry Traut and Stephen Koch stopped to visit 

::: See, Sachse, "German Sectarians", 2:89, 91, 118. 



EARLY HISTORY 119 

Stuntz and his wife. After hearing from them the story 
of the trouble, they proceeded to remove the ban from 
them without waiting for action by the congregation. 
This was irregular, and, at a meeting held at Henry 
Hoehn's, Beissel had them disciplined for removing the 
ban on their own responsibility. Naturally the German- 
town Dunkers sided with Traut and Koch. This occa- 
sioned hard feelings between Beissel and the visitors.* 

The next year after the organization, during Beissel's 
meetings, of the congregation at Falckner's Swamp, the 
Germantown Dunkers endeavored to prejudice the new 
congregation against Beissel. This resulted in further 
bitter feeling and an incipient division between the u Beis- 
selainers" and the Dunkers of Germantown. 

Moreover, a division occurred in the congregation at 
Conestoga, fostered, as Beissel's party thought, by the 
Dunkers of Germantown. Michael Wohlfahrt went to 
Germantown and rebuked the congregation, and Peter 
Becker in particular. Thus, was a consciousness of dif- 
ference developed. 

Further, Beissel laid emphasis on celibacy, which the 
European experiences of the Germantown Dunkers, as a 
church, made them unwilling to endorse. All these 
events made each side recognize the fact that it was 
unlike the other. With these various elements still un- 
assimilated by time and custom, and with the recognition 
of the unlikeness by each side to the controversy, the 
proper conditions were present for a rupture. It came 
about, formally, in December, 1728, when Beissel had 
himself and all his followers baptised over again and thus 
"gave the Germantown Baptists back their baptism", as 
he said. This he did, because the latter were saying that 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", p 36, 38. 



120 THE D TINKERS IN AMERICA 

he had received his baptism from them, and therefore all 
he was he owed to them.* 

In the following year, Alexander Mack and his large 
company of followers arrived at Germantown from West- 
ervain, West Friesland. In this company were 126 per- 
sons, — 59 families, — some of whom settled at German- 
town, t 

What was the immediate cause of the emigration of this 
company of Dunkers under the leadership of Mack from 
Friesland to Pennsylvania it is impossible to say with 
certainty. In general, the causes were much the same as 
moved the other sectarians to leave Europe at that time 
for the Colony of the Quakers. % 

The Dunkers in Friesland had already broken loose 
from their native country, and, after the years of wandering 
they had experienced, the ties that bound them to Europe 
were not strong. The congregations in Europe were 
scattered. Political and religious liberty was not assured 
them any length of time. The economic opportunities 
of the New World, according to all reports that reached 
them, were much superior to theirs in Friesland. In 
fact, there was every reason for their leaving Europe and 
going to Pennsylvania. 

The addition of these new members from the other side 
of the sea made the Germantown church a large one, and 
gave a great impetus to the work there. It not only ad- 
ded numbers, but it created a congregation in which 

* l< Chronicon Ephratense", p. 48. 

fit is not certain, however, that all these were Dunkers. It is probable 
that most of them were, however, as Dr. Brumbaugh has compiled a list 
of 116 members that came with Mack to America. — "Pennsylvania Ar- 
chives", Second Series, 17:18; "Chronicon Ephratense", p 16; Brumbaugh, 
"History of the Brethren", p 54 f. 

JNass's letter translated in Brumbaugh's "History of the Brethren", p 
108 f ; "Chronicon Ephratense", p 24. 



EARL T HIS TOR Y 121 

the recently arrived Dunkers were in such a majority 
that it was virtually a new congregation. The new mem- 
bers before arriving at» Germantown had become assimi- 
lated into a social unit that gave great stability to the 
Germantown congregation. Furthermore, this immigra- 
tion brought to the Germantown church Alexander Mack, 
a man of the greatest influence among both the "Beissel- 
ainers" and the Dunkers. The weight of his influence 
enabled him to use his wise counsel in the settling of any 
differences, and in directing the work of the church, 
while he lived. 

Naturally, when he arrived, the first thing he heard of 
was the recent defection of the "Beisselainers". But he 
heard the story only from the Germantown side. In 1730 
he, with some of the Germantown members, made a jour- 
ney to Conestoga for the pupose of healing the breach 
between the two factions. But Biessel was in no mood 
for compromise, and the negotiations came to naught. 
Some time afterwards Beissel wanted to drop matters and 
have a reconciliation, but the Dunkers would not consent 
without a previous investigation. To this Beissel would 
not consent. Thus, the division became permanent.* 

As we look at the matter from this distance of time, it 
is apparent that there was error on both sides. What 
seem to us trivialities, were exaggerated into causes of 
offence by the imperfectly united parties to the contro- 
versy. 

The underlying cause of the division was the conscious- 
ness of unlikeness that existed in two parties. Beissel 
had more of the mystical element in him than the German- 
town Baptists could look upon with favor. He was cer- 
tainly a man of extraordinary gifts, but a man also of 
great self-esteem, and he was under the influence of the 

* a Chronicon Ephratense", p 31,32. 



122 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

mystics whom he had met in Germany, rather than of the 
men that controlled the Dunkers. As the authors of the 
"Chronicon Ephratense" remark, u those who know how 
the affair stood between the two congregations, know 
also that a close union between them was impossible; for 
they were born of diverse causes". That is the real 
explanation of the beginning of the trouble and of the 
final rupture. u They were born of diverse causes ", — not 
only in the sense intended by the writers, but of diverse 
sociological causes. The leaders and the congregation 
had developed under different environments. Beissel 
had been subjected to a more mystical environment in 
Europe. He was under the influence especially of the 
mystical writings of Boehme and later of Gottfried Arnold, 
while Mack had been influenced by the latter' s historical 
writings only. 

The rough life that Beissel had always led made him 
susceptible to this mystical influence. Furthermore, he 
had not been a Dunker in Europe, he had joined the 
Inspirationists. He knew of the Dunkers, but they had 
had no influence upon him there. He was not acquainted 
with their ideals and their mode of worship, except in a 
general way. Experience of their mode of life, of their 
way of transacting business, and of their ecclesiasticism 
Beissel lacked. He had not experienced the evil effects 
of communism, which experience had made the Dunkers 
react against that feature of church life after seven years 
of trial in Germany. The year that Beissel had spent 
with Becker in Germantown was before the Dunkers 
commenced religious services. Therefore, Beissel was 
utterly without experience in Dunker church life, when 
at the close of his year with Becker he went out into the 
Conestoga wilderness. 

On the other hand, in that region his contact with the 



EARL Y HIS TOR Y 123 

English Sabbatarians, the Jews and the Labadists and 
his imitation of them exaggerated his already existing 
social unlikeness to the Dunkers. 

All such influences were lacking to the Germantown 
Dunkers. By Mack and his followers the mystical was 
looked upon with suspicion. Also, their experiences 
with communism and celibacy in Germany had not been 
such as to cause them to look upon the experiment in 
America with any degree of favor. Furthermore, the 
fact that they were organized prevented the adoption of 
many doctrines that some members may have favored. 
Environment, experience, numbers and organization all 
united in determining that the Dunkers at Germantown 
should not agree with Beissel's views. - 

This division brought new influences to bear upon both 
the "Beisselainers" and the Dunkers. The hard feelings 
between them were deepened, when some from each side 
went over to the other side. The influence that the less 
mystical Dunkers had hitherto exercised over the adher- 
ents of Beissel was cut off, and Beissel's influence, tend- 
ing to make the Dunkers more mystical, ceased to act 
upon them. Beissel came no more into their meetings, 
and leading Dunkers, like Mack and Becker, visited 
Beissel's followers less frequently than before, although 
members of the two congregations still mingled occasion- 
ally^ 

What the result would have been, had the two groups 
continued freely to react upon each other we can only 
conjecture. It is probable that the Dunkers would have 
become more mystical, and the "Beisselainers" might 

*I have dwelt upon this first and most fateful division in America, so far 
as the early days are concerned, because it has never been explained, and 
because of its influence negatively on the later history of the Dunkers. 

f'Chronicon Ephratense", p 95. 



1U THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

have given up some of their mystical tendencies. Social 
homogeneity might have been achieved in due time. 
However, the differing situations of the two congrega- 
tions, the one in settled German town, and the other in 
wild Conestoga, tended toward differentiation, although 
it might not have ended in division, if they could have 
been kept united until after civilization had transformed 
the wilderness. 

As a result of the separation, the Dunkers reacted 
against the mystical, and laid more stress on the Script- 
ures while the "Beisselainers", although revering the 
Scriptures, continued to rest more heaviry on the immediate 
guidance of the Spirit, especially as revealed in Beissel.* 
Henceforth, the two parties, representing the two ten- 
dencies that had been combined in the Dunker church at 
the time of its origin at Schwarzenau, were clearly 
differentiated. Each went its own way. The one be- 
came the developing Dunker church; the other a small 
community that was doomed to die with the passing away 
of the wilderness environment that had cradled it. 

The sociological significance of the history up to this 
point is that it illustrates the theory of social causation 
that we have traced in the earlier history in Europe. 
The character of the Conestoga wilderness conditioned 
the kind of people that went there. It attracted men 
like Beissel, who wished to get away from other men, live 
in solitude with God, and mortify the body. Therefore, 
it was a home for mystics and fanatics. It attracted peo- 
ple that wanted an isolated region in which they might 
work out their peculiar ideas, like the Sabbatarians. Men 
that had failed elsewhere, as well as the more adventur- 
ous sought it out. And, finally, it attracted some men 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", passim. 



EARLY HISTORY 125 

that were too poor to settle in places where the land was 
higher in price. 

Socially the inhabitants were an unformed mass. There 
was no political association to draw them together. The 
environment had determined that many of the inhabitants 
of the region should be susceptible to such ideals as Beis- 
sel's. As soon as enough people were assembled in the 
Conestoga country the instinctive response of each to the 
difficulties of his environment suggested association with 
the others. The common dangers, economic necessity, 
and the inherited social instincts all prompted it. This 
led to instinctive associations, such as were realized in 
neighborly visits. But instinctive association soon led 
to purposive association of an unorganized character, such 
as co-operation in building a hut or clearing and sowing a 
field. By such means social intercourse was developed, 
and the way for discussion was opened. People with a 
past history such as most of these people possessed 
naturally soon came to the discussion of religion, because 
of the sadly neglected state of religion in the wilderness. 
This talk suggested the holding of wholly unorganized 
religious meetings to remedy the sad state of affairs. In 
these meetings, of course, such a man as Beissel, a man 
of superior natural gifts and wider experience, took the 
lead by common consent. Thus, partly instinctively, 
partly purposely, grew up the first unorganized religious 
associations, in response to an ideal that had resulted 
from social tradition and discussion. 

The past experiences of the people who agreed that a 
revival of religion was needed had been only sufficiently 
alike to permit agreement on the general need. On the 
more specific questions of the things to be taught and 
the kind of organization needed there was variety of 
opinion. Beissel responded most quickly and energeti- 



186 . THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

cally to the stimuli of his wilderness environment and to 
the secondary stimuli presented in the ideals of the Sab- 
batarians, Jews, and his fellows in Conestoga as well as 
to the suggestions of men whose teachings he had read 
and heard. Reacting on this situation in Conestoga Beis- 
sel conceived of a sort of organization to conserve the 
religious interests of the community. Thus, sprang up 
the organization of the congregation at Conestoga. 

At first it could not yet be called Dunker, because Beissel 
was not yet a Dunker. Probably the best description 
would be to say that it was a congregation of mystical 
Pietists. 

On the first visit of Becker and the Germantown 
Dunkers, another and more definite ideal was presented 
that resulted in some, at least, of this congregation be- 
coming Dunkers. Whether the whole congregation re- 
sponded to this ideal or not we are unable to say. It was 
this Dunker congregation, modified according to the pe- 
culiar ideals of Beissel, that he left, when he went to 
Ephrata. 

Its importance for us is that it shows us the process by 
which a social organization comes into being. The mate- 
rial environment determined the population of the coun- 
try where it originated. The population of the Conesto- 
ga region conditioned the sort of organization demanded, 
at first but loosely united on some general principles 
only. Later a presentation of a new ideal by the Dunk- 
ers and the lack of competing ideals determined the more 
compact organization on the narrower lines of an organized 
Dunker church. 

b. Later Period : BeissePs Separate Community. 

For about seven years Beissel had charge of the Cones- 
togo congregation.* In 1728 Saturday was adopted by 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", p 63. 



EARL Y HIS TOR T 127 

this congregation as the Sabbath. Hitherto Sunday had 
been devoted to the services, and Saturday was kept in 
quiet.* In the same year the formal rupture was made 
by Beissel, who "gave back their baptism" to the Dunk- 
ers. as he said, by having all his adherents baptized over 
again. About the same time a revival occurred.! 

In 1732, perhaps in March, Beissel suddenly left the 
congregation, after appointing some elders to take charge 
and giving them a New Testament with which to govern 
the congregation, and went eight miles to the northwest, 
to the place now called Ephrata, which was then a wilder- 
ness, and took up his abode in a small hut that had .been 
built by Emanuel Echerle. In September of that year, 
however, Beissel called together the heads of the congre- 
gation of Conestoga, to consider the affairs of the church 
at that place. Reports had come to him that things there 
were going badly. Beissel now practically assumed con- 
trol of the congregation again. Soon afterwards several 
of the unmarried men and women of the congregation at 
Conestoga followed Beissel to Ephrata. There gradually 
grew up about him at that place a settlement that has be- 
come famous in American religious history. 

About 1732 by means of an "awakening", aroused by 
the efforts of Beissel, in the Tulpehocken church, a union 
congregation composed of Lutherans and Reformed, but 
under the care of a Reformed pastor, Beissel obtained 
an opportunity to present his views to that people. He 
won over to his side the pastor, Peter Miller, one of the 
most learned men in America at that time, and Conrad 
Weiser, a man of wide influence, an elder in this congre- 
gation and an authority on Indian affairs, who on this ac- 

*Ibid p. 44. 

tLetter in "Geistliche Fama", 1731, Drittes Stuech, p 21. (In Penna. 
His. Soe. Library.) 



128 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

count stood in high esteem with the government.* 
Through their influence and that gained by his success 
in promoting the revival among them Beissel was enabled 
to win over to his peculiar views two other elders, the 
schoolmaster of the congregation, and "about ten fami- 
lies" of the membership of the Tulpehocken church, t 
Not later than May, 1735, these were all baptized and 
joined the church over which he had presided before he 
left for Ephrata, and over which he even yet exercised 
practical supervision .% 

The reasons for the change are to be found in the con- 
ditions of the country, and the personality of Beissel. 
In an age of loose morals in the church, as well as out- 
side of it, it was natural that men of the deep seriousness 
of these Germans should revolt against sexual sin. But 
their reaction against this sin led them to attack matri- 
mony by a very common logical error. This austerity, 
developed in Germany in reaction against the loose 
morals of the time, was strengthened by what they saw 
of domestic conditions in America. It was often the 
custom in tbe wilderness of Pennsylvania for a man to 
have two wives. Contemporary records present us a 
picture of morals that is anything but elevated.** It was 
in reaction against this state of things that Beissel adopt- 

*See, "Colonial Records'', Index, "Conrad Weiser". 

fBoehm's letter in "Minutes and Letters of the Coetus in Pennsylva- 
nia", p 8. 

JBoehm says April, Ibid, p 2, 3, 8; cf. "Chronicon Ephratense", p 73. 
These people did not move to Ephrata, however, until some time later. 
This change on the part of Miller and a portion of his flock was not a sud- 
den one, but the outcome of about five years of friendly intercourse between 
him and Beissel. Already in 1732 Miller had gone to the house of one of 
Beissel's followers and joined with them in the rite of Feet Washing-. 

**Cf. Mittelberger's "Journey to Penna., in the year 1750" trans. byTheo. 
Eben: Philadelphia, 1898. 



EARLY HISTORY 129 

ed the suggestions of the German mystics and ascetics. 
In so doing he was simply responding to the stimuli of 
his environment. That the experience of Beissel was 
shared by many others is shown by the numbers that he 
was able to get to respond to his ideals. This wilderness 
of Conestoga provided all the favorable conditions that 
enabled Beissel' s followers to realize the ideals un- 
hindered. 

Moreover, it was a time of great religious uncertainty 
in Pennsylvania. To those that were used to the settled 
religious usages of Europe, the conditions in America 
seemed to verge on heathenism.* All sorts of sects 
were tolerated, and sprang up everywhere. As most of 
the people had come to Pennsylvania to escape from 
religious intolerance, it was but natural that in the 
atmosphere of toleration there they should sometimes go 
too far in their new found freedom. 

People were unsettled in religious matters. Coming 
from a land of despotism and from thickly settled com- 
munities into a land where each one was free to be relig- 
ious or not as he pleased, and into a country sparsely 
settled, the absence of the usual moral and religious 
restraints loosened rigid habits, and made some men 
careless of religious customs that hitherto had been 
matters of course. 

Coming from a land where school and church privileges 
were provided for them without thought or care, on their 
part, to a land where all had to be provided at their own 
cost, they neglected these matters, when they had all 
they could do to make a living. There were few preach- 
ers and schoolmasters. They had no one to guide them 
in religious and moral affairs. 

*See the dialogues between the traveler and the farmer in Sauer's 
"Almanacs", Penna. Historical Society Library, Philadelphia. 



130 THE B UNKERS IN AMERICA 

Furthermore, religious deadness, coupled with memo- 
ries of a different state in other days, made these people 
susceptible to such an "awakening'' as Beissel knew how 
to promote. The circumstances of their wilderness life 
made them defer to the power of the few strong charac- 
ters with whom they came in contact. Already affected 
with Pietism many were open to Beissel's message. 
These facts, with the dominating personality of Beissel, 
and their frontier life account for the notable accession 
of members, which so strengthened Beissel's cause at 
this time of need. 

In 1734 members of the congregation at Falckner's 
Swamp, which Beissel had so large a part in organizing, 
began to move to Ephrata, that they might be near 
Beissel, u so that in a few years the country for from 
three to four miles around was occupied by this kind of 
people".* 

In 1735 for the, unmarried female followers of Beissel 
the communistic mode of life began to supplant the her- 
mitical mode, Hitherto those that had followed Beissel 
to Ephrata had lived each in his own separate hut. Now 
the first building for common use was begun. Some of 
the married followers of Beissel contributed what prop- 
erty they possessed to the fund for the erection of other 
buildings. f The male "solitary" brethren established 
the communistic life in 1738. 

Soon after this Beissel began to urge upon the married 
people the necessity of practising continence. A great 
many of them separated from their husbaods and wives, 
the men living in one apartment, the women in another. 
The families that refused to break up had their own house- 
hold economy in the settlement. They did not mingle 

*"Chronicon Ephratense," p 66. 
tlbid, p 79, 81. 



EARL Y HIST OB Y 131 

with the unmarried, for the latter were considered holier 
than the married. In this household of the married eat- 
ing at common tables was introduced.* The "solitary" 
life with which Beissel started out thus became a com- 
munistic life. This change was the result of the reac- 
tion of these people upon the conditions of life where 
they lived. The institutions that grew up were the pro- 
duct of response to certain external stimuli, which made 
up, in part, the environment. In Beissel' s case, as at 
Schwarzenau, Germany, the communistic life was the 
result of reaction on harsh social conditions. More than 
any of the Dunkers he had been a wanderer. The hard 
European experience of Bessiel as a child and young man, 
and of his neighbors of Ephrata, was repeated by him and 
most of his congregation in America. They lived on the 
frontier, with the terrors of savages and wild beasts 
about them, and an untamed wilderness between them and 
civilization. The virgin forest had to be cleared away 
before they could begin to raise their crops. The culti- 
vation of the land was difficult because of the lack of 
implements and domestic animals. Even after he and 
some of his friends had moved to Ephrata they drew 
the ploughs themselves, probably because of the lack of 
horses or oxenf. 

Furthermore, it is a common observation that pioneer 
communities are hospitable. They have not that grasp- 
ing disposition characteristic of older societies. They 
are more open to the needs of men, wealth is not hoarded 
so closely, and private property has not yet become so 
strictly private. Frontier life seems to make men more 

*Ibid, p 83, 90. 

fA later age thought it wa3 from humane motives, but the explanation 
of the text is much more likely, as they later used oxen and horses in the 
fields. They hitched themselves to the plow for the same reason that they 
went on foot in their journeys, because they had no other way. 



132 TEE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

considerate of the needs of their fellowmen in certain 
matters. The dangers of the wilderness and the un- 
certainties of existence tend to promote the communistic 
form of life, for they make cooperation necessary. The 
communistic settlement at Ephrata was cooperation on a 
large scale. 

This mode of life, however, was the result of response 
not only to the stimuli of the material environment, but 
also of the opposition that they experienced from those 
about them who had misunderstood their aims, or were 
displeased with their practices. The eccentricities of 
Beissel's people attracted the attention of members of 
other faiths. Their practice of celibacy, their monkish 
dress, their sectarian tendencies raised suspicions against 
them. Their neighbors thought them Jesuits, and free 
lovers, and invented a]l sorts of strange stories about 
them. This made sharper the social differentiation of 
the "Beisselainers" from the other inhabitants of the 
region, and tended to increase their zeal for their ideals 
and to favor the communistic life. The whole situation 
was just such as to favor the imitation of ascetic and com- 
munistic ideals, if not, indeed, to suggest them. The iso- 
lation of the region and the community from outside in- 
fluences prevented interferences with the realization of 
Beissel's ideals. 

That the communistic features of Beissel's settlement 
at Ephrata were products of the response of the Com- 
munity to the stimuli of the environment is indicated also 
by the fact that the communism died out when the wilder- 
ness gave place to civilization. 

An organization never develops very far before its lead- 
ers formulate and seek to enforce a policy of uniformity. 
This is done for the purpose of assisting the process of 
social assimilation. It may take the form of a policy of 



EARLY HISTORY 1SS 

uniform language, religion, culture or even a uniformity 
of dress. In this case a uniform language, religion and 
dress was adopted.* In 1735, or 1736, the unmarried men 
adopted a uniform garb. In this they were soon followed 
by the unmarried women, and finally by the families, or 
u domestic household". In this way the leaders of the 
Community sought to realize the ideal of unity. 

In 1736 the Dunkers of German town made a "visita- 
tion" to the Community at Ephrata. Notwithstanding 
the fact that Beissel once before, since he had formally 
separated his congregation from them, had refused to 
have anything to do with them, the Dunkers desired to 
bring about a reconciliation. Beissel, however, refused 
to allow his people to accept the overtures of the Dunk- 
ers. f This was the last attempt to unite the two parties. 

In 1737 the "Solitary brethren'' at Ephrata came into 
conflict with the civil authorities over poll taxes. They 
refused to pay them, on the ground that, like the ancient 
Egyptian ascetics, they ministered to the poor of the 
neighborhood, and that, therefore, like their Egyptian 
prototypes, they should be excused. After some trouble 
about it, in which the brethren were locked up in the 
Lancaster jail for ten days, the Commissioners and As- 
sessors of Taxes, consented to remit the poll tax on con- 
dition that the "solitary brethren" should pay taxes on 
the land they held.J How illuminating is this incident! 
Living in a wilderness far from civil authorities, living 
their own life, what was government to them? All they 
had on which to base an opinion of civil authorities was 
the memory of a government that oppressed them. 
Notice, moreover, their ground for refusing to pay the poll 

*"Chromcon Ephratense", p 182. 
t"CkroDicon Epratense", p 95, 101. 
J 1 'Chronicon Ephratense", p 87. 



1S4 THE D UNKEBS IJV AMERICA 

tax, — they were doing the same work as their Egyptian 
prototypes. They felt themselves akin to the early 
Christian ascetics, therefore they lived thus and re- 
fused to pay the tax. Here clearly appears the reason 
for their imitation of early Christian asceticism and mo- 
nasticism, viz., consciousness of kind growing out of a 
like response to a similar environment. 

About 1736 or 1737 a revival began in German town. 
This revival, like most of the ''awakenings " among the 
Dunkers at this time, was characterized by enthusiastic 
and ecstatic phenomena. But Becker and Nass opposed 
the revival on account of the observed consequences of 
such revivals in German} 7 . * In consequence of the 
opposition, a number of those that had been "awakened" 
at this time, and some of those who had promoted the 
revival, left Germantown, and joined the party of 
Beissel at Ephrata.f 

Naturally, the desertion of these persons, amoDgwhom 
were two children of Mack, the founder of the Dunker 
sect, and several members of the original band of 
Schwarzenau, caused hard feelings. The defection is 
interesting, because it shows that, although the German- 
town church was growing away from the ideals of life 
with which it had started out in Germany, and was be- 
coming more orderly in its methods, there were some 
among its members that had not shared in the evolution. 
Their attitude shows a return to the ideals of an earlier 
time, and reveals the fact that social assimilation was 

*Cf. Davenport, "Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals", passim. 

fThe names of the married people in this party of seceders were, "Henry 
Kalkglaesser, Valentine Mack, John Hildebrand, Lewis Hoecker, Pettiko- 
fer, the widow of Gorgas, and their children". "To the solitary belonged 
Henry Hoecker, Alexander Mack Jr., John Reissmann, Christian Eckstein, 
Elizabeth Eckstein, Martha Rinsing, and Miriam Gorgas". — "Chronicon 
Ephratense", p 101, 102. 



EARL T HIS TOR Y 1S5 

not yet complete. Although some of these converts to 
the ideals of Beissel returned to the Dunkers later on, 
yet the falling away caused a widening of the already 
existing breach between the Dunkers and the followers 
of Beissel. That feeling had run high between Mack and 
Beissel as early as 1731 is shown by the notice of events 
in the "Geistliche Fama", which says that Mack had 
written a book against Beissel 's view on the Sabbath.* 
While for some time a feeling of kinship continued to 
exist between individuals in each party towards individ- 
uals in the other, the separation now became more pro- 
nounced, and finally complete, even in feeling. From 
this time on each party went its own way. That some 
of these conyerts later returned to the Dunkers shows 
that two ideals were in conflict at this time among these 
Germans, and that a process of selection was determining 
the issue of that conflict. History and the wilderness 
were with Beissel; experience and advancing civilization 
were on the side of the Dunkers. The future belonged to 
the party at German town. That the latter stood against 
the reactionary tendency shows that a new day in Dun- 
ker history was dawning. 

The defection of Beissel and his party from the Dunker 
church resulted, thus, in the separation of the two differ- 
ent conceptions of life that had been held simultaneously, 
more or less loosely, by the Dunkers from the beginning 
of their history in 1708. The ascetic conception, that of 
Beissel, had originated in a time of harsh experiences. It 
was the practical response of an oppressed people to the 
stimuli of an unfavorable environment. The other con- 
ception, that of the main Dunker party at Germantown, 
was the fruit of a more settled history. Hitherto, both 
had existed side by side in the Dunker church, now the 

*Drittes Stuech, 1731, p 51. 






136 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

one and now the other predominating, according to the cir- 
cumstances of the time. Here they became clearly differ- 
entiated. That Beissel still held to the ascetic, ecstatic 
and communistic ideal meant that the Dunkers ceased to 
hold it. This came about for two reasons: (1) because a 
consciousness of unlikeness determined that the Dunkers 
should refuse to hold what Beissel and his followers be- 
lieved; (2) because, consciousness of kind selected the 
members from each party according to the ideal held by 
that party. That was the significance of Beissel and his 
community for the history of the Dunker church. His 
separation from them meant the definite and final repu- 
diation of his ideals. That repudiation determined that 
the Dunker church should not be a celibate and commu- 
nistic community, subject to the domination of the Spirit 
in one man, but a church organized on democratic prin- 
ciples, living its life in the world, and governed by the 
Spirit of God working on the hearts of all its members. 
Therefore, the influence of Beissel upon the development 
of the Dunker church was very significant. 

The followers of Beissel built up the Community at 
Ephrata step by step until it attained considerable im- 
portance in the life of the frontier. Beginning with a 
bake-house and public granary, they soon added to the 
plant a saw and grist mill, a woolen mill and paper mill. 
There was also a tannery and a pottery furnace. As early 
as 1745 a printing press and a book bindery were estab- 
lished.* All this industrial advance was made while the 
Community was under the control of the Echerlin broth- 
ers and for the purpose of supporting the Brotherhood 
of unmarried brethren, who had hitherto been supported 
by the offerings of the Community. After the dethrone- 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", p 140 f ; Brumbaugh, "History of the Breth- 
ren", p, 456. 



EARLY HISTORY 137 

ment of the Echerlins and the return of Beissel to the 
ascendancy, these signs of progress, which were looked 
upon as "worldly" b} T the most of the members, were 
allowed to fall into decay or were burnt down. The mem- 
bers, moreover, had groaned under the Echerlins' se- 
verely industrial and commercial policy.* The money 
that was accumulated under the wise management of 
these able brothers and which had been loaned out by 
Israel Echerlin, the Prior of the Brotherhood in Zion, as 
the unmarried male members were called, was now soon 
dissipated by Beissel in gifts to beggars and in paying the 
debts of false members. f The fine orchards that the 
Echerlins had planted were rooted up4 The industry 
that had been built up went to nothing. In spite of the 
fact that there were accessions from different quarters 
at various periods, the beginning of the decline of the 
Community dates from this period. The Echerlins had 
seen which way the logic of events was leading. They 
endeavored to meet the new situation and adapt the Com- 
munity to the changed environment. But they were in a 
minorit}^. The circumstances demanded that the Com- 
munity enlarge its scope to meet the needs of a develop- 
ing country. When it decided to remain stationary, the 
Community sealed its own doom. 

Confirmatory of this is the number of unmarried breth- 
ren and sisters in the Community at different times. 
Thus, when in 1738 the community life of the "solitary" 
brethren was established, 17 "solitary brethren" moved 
from their huts into Zion and became the Zionitic Broth- 
erhood, a kind of monk's Order. In 1740 there were 36 
single men in this Brotherhood and 35 single women in 

*"Chronicon Ephrateiise", p 139, 170 f., 209 f. 
t"Ibid, p 199-205, 137. 
tlbid, p 198. 



138 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

the corresponding Sisterhood. About 1745 there were 
approximately 70 persons in both orders, besides the 
"household" economy of the married members and their 
children, of which at one time there were nearly 300 
members in the vicinity. In 1746 there were 34 single 
brethren, while the next year there were 80 members 
that belonged to the orders. In 1764 there were 21 males 
and 25 females. In 1769 there were but 14 males in the 
Brotherhood. This is the last we hear of the exact num- 
ber of the unmarried men and women. When this cel- 
ibate feature of the Society disappeared we do not know. 
Sometime before 1865 the Brother-house was occupied by 
sisters, hence before that time the Brotherhood must 
have ceased to exist. 

Not only the celibate orders died out, but the member- 
ship in general decreased gradually after the middle of 
the eighteenth century. In 1769, according to Dr. Fahne- 
stock, a member of the community, there were but forty 
families, with 135 members all told including both the 
celibate men and women and the households. Of these 
14 were male celibates. 

In 1830 at a meeting of the Society, a motion was passed 
that the Society should allow members to vote by proxy 
on account of the inconvenience of attending the meetings. 
This shows that the members were becoming widely scat- 
tered. In 1827, the first date from which minutes have 
been preserved, there were but 20 men and 15 women 
that attended the business meeting of the Society. In 
1839 only 20 members voted; in 1843, the number had 
dwindled to 13. After this date the voting membership 
rose to 14 in 1847, 22 in 1855 and 29 in 1875. In the sum- 
mer of 1904, when I visited the Community, the celibate 
mode of life had entirely disappeared and the member- 
ship about Ephrata was limited to twelve or fifteen 



EARLY HISTORY 139 

members. The only trace of the communistic feature 
remaining was the ownership of the property by the So- 
ciety, which is controlled by a board of trutees.* There 
the old buildings stand, which expressed the hopes of 
earnest men and women to establish a place where the 
warring, selfish, and sinful tendencies of the wicked 
world should be shut out. It was a dream, the splendor 
of which, in the eyes of these people, is attested by the 
serious way in which they went about to realize it. But 
it was a dream that the composition of the population 
round about made unrealizable. They had to learn by 
hard experience, that no man and no community can live 
unto itself. The great unfriendly world pressed in upon 
Ephrata -dimming its glorious vision, and finally over- 
came it. 

Yet, in spite of the strange events that marked its his- 
tory and this reversion to a mode of life whose day was 
past, the Ephrata Community was a light in a great wil- 
derness, not onty in spiritual affairs, but also in matters 
industrial, educational and charitable at a time of great 
need in the history of Pennsylvania. Her buildings were 
gladly devoted to serve as hospitals for the wounded sol- 
diers of the Revolutionary Army after the battle of 
Brandy wine. She had one of the first schools in all that 
country. Her printing establishment was one of the ear- 
liest and best that printed in the German language in 
America. 

The further history of this interesting experiment it 
is not our purpose to follow. The important steps in its 
history have been noticed. Its origin as a voluntary 
association to remedy religious indifference in the wilder- 

*Holsinger, "History of theTunkers," p 139; "Cnronicon Ephratense, " 
p 106, 192, 193; Minutes in possession of the Trustees of the Society at 
Ephrata; Rupp's "History of Lancaster County," p 217. 



lJfi THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

ness and its development into a Dunker eogregation has 
been traced. Its development as a congregation in the 
adoption of the Sabbath, and of a Jewish legalism, 
and its emphasis on celibacy were noticed. We then 
saw the steps by which its history was separated from 
the Dunkers and the further development from a 
church into a community. The social development of 
this Society was then traced from a simple unorganized 
collection of like-minded people into a completely organ- 
ized body with a well developed constitution and a unified 
policy. The critical period in its development was then 
noticed, when it turned back from the path of industrial 
development marked out by the Echerlins, and its subse- 
quent gradual decay. 

It remains only to explain its decadence. After 
Ephrata was transformed from a wilderness by the ad- 
vancing tide of civilization and became a comparatively 
well settled place, and after the physical environment 
made possible a different intellectual and religious life, 
the Community began to lose its influence and power. 
Some have thought that it went down because Beissel' s 
successor, Peter Miller, was not the equal of the former 
as a manager of the Community. On the contrary, in 
every respect, except in the eccentric personality of 
Beissel, Miller was vastly his superior. He was one of 
the best educated men in the Colonies. He had the solid 
characteristics of the best Germans. His temper was 
much more even and his eccentricities much less pro- 
nounced. He was not so erratic and overbearing. And, 
finally, he had none of Beissel' s petty vices. The reason 
for the decadence of Ephrata lay not so much in the diff- 
erence in the two men that stood at its head as in the 
changed circumstances of its social surroundings. The 
crisis was reached, when in 1745 the Community turned 



EARLY HISTORY 



141 



its back upon its opportunity to welcome the new era 
that had dawned socially in the Conestoga wilderness. 
Then was its chance to become an industrial centre and 
contribute to the development of the country in which it 
was located. It chose to revert, however, to the religious 
self -centralization characteristic of its earlier history, 
and in so doing failed to adapt itself to the changing con- 
ditions of its environment. In time a process of natural 
selection destroyed it. 

Thus, Ephrata arose in response to a need felt by cer- 
tain elements in the population on the frontier of Pennsyl- 
vania. But, when the wilderness receded before popula- 
tion and civilized conditions, when peace succeded war and 
oppression, and when, instead of a grudging reward for 
patient toil, the land yielded bountifully, and there was 
an unlimited demand from outside the community for 
what it produced, the stimuli that had created the com- 
munity ceased to act. Its ideals died with the environ- 
ment that gave them birth. 

In Germantown, with its more heterogeneous composi- 
tion, the ascetic and mystical Dunker heritage, brought 
from Germany, was sloughed off sooner than it was in 
the wilderness at Ephrata. A gradually changing en- 
vironment, differing stimuli, increasing differences in 
the composition of the groups, and therefore gradually 
differing ideals, — these facts make up the explanation of 
the two diverging developments of the same historic 
movement. 



CHAPTER III. 



Expansion of the Bunkers in America. 

As we saw in the last chapter, the Dunkers had no 
sooner arrived in America than they scattered to various 
parts adjoining German town. However, it was only when 
land became dearer in Eastern Pennsylvania that they 
sold their farms there and sought new and cheaper ones 
in the south and west. This movement of the Dunkers 
from the places where they first settled to newer por- 
tions of the country is described by the title at the head 
of this chapter. 

This expansion must now be traced in some detail. Up 
to 1770 the following churches had been organized besides, 
doubtless, some scattered members elsewhere. 

The first Dunker church to be organized in America, 
the one at Germ an town, in 1770 had 50 members in 40 
families. 

In the previous chapter the origin of the Coventry 
church, the second in America, was noticed. It was or- 
ganized in 1724, with nine members.* In 1770 it had 70 

members, t 

A few days later the Cones toga church was organized. 
This was the one over which Beissel was elected teacher, 
an event that occasioned the trouble between Conestoga 
and the Germantown Dunkers. Eleven of the Conestoga 
members went with Beissel. Twenty seven, however, 
remained in allegiance to the Dunkers of Germantown. 
There has always since been a church at Conestoga, or 
as it is sometimes called, Cocalico. After Beissel 's de- 
fection, Peter Becker ministered to this church until 

*Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 274; Cf. "Chronicon Eph- 
ratense", p 22. 

flbid, p 296. 



EXPANSION 143 

1734, when Michael Frantz was placed over it. At this 
time there was a reorganization of the congregation. In 
1734, or 1735, this congregation had 20 members; in 1747, 
or 1748, it had 200 members*; and before 1790 it had re- 
ceived a total of 463 members, t In 1770 there were 53 
families connected with this church, comprising 86 per- 
sons in full communion. 

It appears from the "Chronieon" that there were small 
numbers of Dunkers at Skippack, Falckner's Swamp and 
Oley as early as 1722. % These places were on the route 
often taken at that time from Germantown to the Cones- 
toga country. 

In 1770 there were 20 members at Oley. Its formal 
organization seems to have occurred late, but doubtless 
there were members there from the first, as this was one 
of the places at which Becker and his party stopped in 
their first "visitation".** 

According to Edwards, the Great Swamp congregation 
was organized in 1733. 

In the same year the congregation at Amwell, New 
Jersey, was organized, although probably some of the 
members who formed the nucleus of these two congrega- 
tions had settled in these places previously. 

The White Oak congregation, which was near the 
Conestoga church, was organized in 1736, although 
already in 1729 there had come into that region several 
persons from Germany, some of whom probably later 
became members, ft This and the Conestoga congrega- 

.*Cf. Brumbaugh, p 299. 

TChronicon Ephratense, p 118; Record said to have been written by Peter 
Becker, quoted by Holsinger, "History of the Tunkers", p 429. 

f'Chronicon Eph." p 24. 

**Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren," p 297. 

ttlbid, p 318. 



1U THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

tions were under one elder. In 1770 it had 65 members, 
according to Morgan Edwards.* 

In 1738 the Little Conewago congregation, in York 
county, Hanover township, was organized. In 1770 it 
had 40 families with 52 members. 

In 1741 the Cone wago congregation, 14 miles from York, 
was established. In 1770 there were 77 members here. 

In 1748 the Northkill congregation was organized, 
made up of members in Tulpehocken and Bern townships, 
Berks county. In 1770 there were 11 members. 

In 1756 the Great Swatara congregation was organized, 
but its first member had been baptized there in 1752. In 
1770 it had 39 members. 

The Bermudian congregation, in York county, was or- 
ganized in 1758. In 1770 it had 40 families with 58 mem- 
bers. 

In 1758 the Codorus church, in York county, was or- 
ganized. In 1770 it had 35 members. 

As early as 1760, there were a few members in the Car- 
olinas, when Daniel Letter man and Casper Rowland 
moved thither from Germantown, Pennsylvania. 

In 1762 the Stony Creek church, in Somerset county, 
came into existence. It was the first congregation west 
of the Alleghanies. In 1770 it had 17 members. 

In 1770 the Little Swatara congregation was formally 
organized, although already in 1745 several people had 
settled there who afterwards became the first Dunkers in 
the place. In 1770 it had 45 members. 

Thus, in 1770 there were 15 congregations of Dunkers 
in Pennsylvania with a total membership of 623 and 
Beissel's congregation at Ephrata with 135 members. 
Also there was one church in New Jersey, at Am well, 
which in 1770 had 28 families with 46 members. Morgan 

^"Materials towards a History of the Baptists in America", Vol. on Penna. 



EXPANSION 145 

Edwards states in 1790 that there were 7 churches in 
Maryland, and 10 in the more southern states .* 

A close study of these early congregations reveals the 
interesting fact that the congregations nearest to Ger- 
mantown began to suffer from emigration very early in 
their history. Thus, the Germantown church in 1770, 
with a history of forty seven years, had only fifty mem- 
bers, and the Coventry church had only forty members 
left after forty six years, while the Conestoga congrega- 
tion, which up to 1770 had received three hundred and 
ninety five persons into membership, had but eighty six 
members remaning at that date. These congregations are 
simply illustrations of what had happened to all the Bun- 
ker churches in the older parts of Pennsylvania in 1770. 
Where they had gone is partially shown by the statement 
of Christopher Sauer, when, in his letter to Governor 
Denny in 1755, he said that there were then, "eight or 
nine counties of German people in Virginia, where many 
out of Pennsylvania are removed to".f 

This first period of expansion was checked by the out- 
break of the Revolutionary War. But at the close of this 
war, when the Indians of the Northwest Territory had 
been subdued, and the last signs of British rule along 
the Lakes had disappeared, the cheap lands of Ohio at- 
tracted the Dunkers thither from Pennsylvania, by way 
of Pittsburg, and from Virginia and Maryland, while 
some Dunkers crossed the mountains from Carolina into 

^"Materials towards a History of the Baptists in Jersey"; Cf. Brum- 
baugh, p 335. In this account of the state of the church in America in 
these early days I am indebted to Morgan Edwards' works, written from 
1770 to 1790, and especially to Dr. Brumbaugh's excellent work on the 
subject in his "History of the Brethren", Chapter 9; Cf. Holsiuger "His- 
tory of the Tunkers", Chapter 7. 

tSee translation of Sauer 's letter in Brumbaugh, "History of the Breth- 
ren", p 380, or Holsinger, "History of the Tunkers", p 787. 



U6 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

Tennessee and Kentucky and thence reached Indiana 
and Illinois. From Ohio the churches spread westward 
to Indiana and Illinois, and thither westward to Iowa, 
Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and the Pacific slope. 

From the Carolinas Dunkers crossed into Kentucky 
and preached there at a very early day.* Before 1800 
Dunker settlements were made in Simpson, Muhlenberg 
and Shelby counties, Kentucky, by settlers from Ohio, 
Virginia and Pennsylvania, f 

As early as 1799 settlers from Virginia crossed into 
what is now Greenbrier and Washington counties, Tenn- 
essee. But the number was small until 1833, when a 
number of families came from Virginia. From that time 
on a stream of Dunker emigrants kept pouring westward 
from Virginia and the Carolinas into Tennessee and 
Kentucky. 

The first Dunkers came to Missouri in 1795 from North 
Carolina and Pennsylvania. In 1824 there were fifty 
communicants in Cape Girardeau county and they were 
closely connected with a Dunker settlement forty miles 
away in Union county, Illinois. The Dunker churches 
of southwestern Missouri have been organized since 1870. 

In 1808 Jacob Wolfe and George Wolfe Jr. moved from 
Kentucky to Union county, 111. The next year George 
Wolfe Sr., then of Logan county, Kentucky, whither he 
had moved in 1800, from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, 
preached in southwestern Missouri and Illinois. But the 
first Dunker church was not organized in Illinois until 
18124 The Dunker settlements in northern Illinois were 

*The Dunker, Joseph Rodgers, is reported to have been the first white 
man that preached the Gospel in Kentucky. 

fHolsinge*, "History of the Tunkere", p 762. 
JIbid, p 402 f . 



EXPANSION 



U7 



made by people from Indiana and Ohio, for the most 
part, and were later. 

About 1800 Dunkers began moving into Ohio. John 
Cay lor and family at that time moved into the Miami 
valley from Virginia. About the same time Dunkers 
came into the Mahoning valley also, the first named 
valley being in the south western and the other in the 
north-eastern part of the state. In 1829 some Dunker 
families moved from Montgomery County, Ohio, into 
what is now Elkhart County, Indiana. At the same date 
there were Dunkers in Union County, Indiana.* 

James R. Gish and other Dunkers emigrated from Vir- 
ginia to what is now Roanoke, Illinois in the fall of 1849. 
But an earlier settlement of Dunkers had come into 
Illinois from Tennesee and Kentucky. There were Dun- 
kers in Illinois as early as 1824. About 1850 there were 
Dunkers in Du Page, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Adams, and 
Union counties, at least. 

According to the statement of David Peebler, of Ore- 
gon, the first Dunker church in Iowa was organized in 
1840, or 1841, in Jefferson County. The date when the 
first Dunkers arrived in that state is unknown, and 
whence they came. In 1852 a family of Dunkers moved 
to the region near where Maquoketa now stands, in Jack- 
son County. In 1854 Dunkers settled in Linn County, 
Iowa, and in 1856 the church south of Waterloo, Iowa, in 
Black Hawk County, was organized. In both the latter 
cases the settlers were from Pennsylvania, the former 
from Blair, the latter from Somerset County. 

Thus, in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa the 
two streams of Dunker migration, the one by the way of 
Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Ken- 



*Hoisinger, ' 'History of the Tunkere, etc.," p 334, 401, 



lJtS THE D TINKERS IN AMERICA 

tueky, the other through western Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
Indiana, once more met. 

In 1867 there were Dunker people at Salem, Albany and 
Lebanon, Oregon. The first members probably settled 
in Oregon in 1852, going from Illinois across the plains 
and mountains in wagons, and settled eight miles above 
Oregon City.* ' 

As early as 1856 we find Dunker members in California, 
whither they had moved from Illinois, t 

This account of the spread of the Dunker people is by 
no means complete. Nevertheless, it is all that pub- 
lished material, so far as I am aware, will enable one to 
say about the early development, and it enables us to get 
a fairly complete conception of the distribution, if not of 
the numbers, of the Dunker migrations up to the time 
of the Civil War. 

This movement took place in response to the economic 
motive. The other causes that moved them to migrate 
to America were no longer operative. Desire to better 
their condition financially, was the only cause that led 
them to forsake communities already fairly well settled, 
to seek the frontier, to turn their backs upon church and 
educational privileges for themselves and their children, 
to hide themselves in the forests and mountains of Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, and the prairies of the Ohio and Mississippi 
valleys. 

The direction of this expansion, however, was deter- 
mined by other factors in addition to the economic. The 
physical character of the country was one thing 
that determined where the Dunker s went. If the 
reader will take the trouble to follow geographically 

*Hoiainger, "History of the Tunkers", p 185, 812. 
flbid, p. 752. 



EXPANSION 149 

the multiplication of congregations from the par- 
ent congregation at German town, he will discover that 
growth was determined by physical conditions, both in 
its direction and in its extent. In these early days trav- 
ellers and emigrants followed the line of least resistance, 
the natural watercourses. Such was the route that 
Becker and his party took in their first u visitation" in 
1722. Subsequent Dunker migration followed the Schuyl- 
kill River into Montgomery county and into Berks coun- 
ty, to the head waters of the Cones toga River, which flows 
southwest into the Susquehanna. This river was then 
followed up into the Cumberland valley, thence the route 
led down into York county, and through Maryland, to 
the Virginias and the Carolinas. Another path of migra- 
tion, however, instead of turning into the Cumberland 
Valley, continued up the Susquehanna, to the Juniata, 
up to its head waters, and thence by a short portage to 
the head waters of a branch of the Ohio.* But the south- 
ern course was the more feasible and most of the Dunker 
churches before 1800 are found from Germantown to Vir- 
ginia, with a few in the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee 
and Missouri. These regions were on ; ,the line of least 
resistance for emigrants in search of agricultural lands, 
and these early Dunkers were, for the most part, farmers, f 
Furthermore, the adaptability of a region for agriculture 

*Semple, "American History and its Geographical Conditions," p 60; see 
Map, p 54. 

fPenna. Ger. Soc. Proceedings, 6: 321, 360. The first Annual Meeting 
of the Dunker church to be held outside of^ Pennsylvania, Maryland and 
Virginia was in 1822, when it was held in Ohio. It was first held in Indiana 
in 1848. That was the fourth time it had been held outside of the states first 
named and the other three exceptions were occasions when it was held in 
Ohio. This shows that the great part of the Danker membership was lo- 
cated in Pennsylvania, j Maryland and Virginia for some time after the 
Revolutionary War. See ''Classified Minutes," p. 398; Brumbaugh, "His- 
tory of the Brethren," p. 491. 



150 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

had a decisive effect on the direction of their migration. 

Thus, these Dunkers spread abroad and settled in the 
Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Cumberland and Shenandoah 
valleys, because they were well adapted to the agricul- 
tural methods of that day. Moreover, they looked for 
fertile valleys. These Germans had been the best farm- 
ers of Europe and when they sought new homes the 
superior fertility of the western and southern valleys, 
had an effect on their decision. Again, the proximity of 
the Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys to the seaboard 
led the Dunkers to occupy them rather than the equally 
fertile valleys of western Pennsylvania. 

Another factor in the determination of the direction 
the expansion took was the social. Between two places 
equally good from the economic standpoint, people choose 
that one where there is already a population like them- 
selves socially. This consideration determined that, 
once a bold spirit had chosen a region from other con- 
siderations, the rest of his comrades in faith chose that 
region rather than some other, because of their conscious- 
ness of kind. 

It was consciousness of likeness, begetting an affection 
for their fellow countrymen and co-religionists and a de- 
sire to supply to them the blessings of the church, that 
led to "visitation" of members in outlying districts and 
the organization of scattered members into churches. 
From that day in 1772, when Peter Becker organized the 
first "visitation" to the scattered brethren living in east- 
ern Pennsylvania, until in recent years a different 
policy was begun with the establishment of the Indian 
and Persian Missions, respectively by the Conservative 
and the Progressive branches of the general body, mission- 
ary work has always been conducted on the "visitation" 
plan. Growth has been by means of emigration and col- 



EXPANSION 151 

onizition. A few members, for the sake of better econom- 
ic opportunities, have broken away from a congregation, 
and migrated to another place, where land has been more 
abundant and cheaper. There they have formed the nu- 
cleus of a new congregation. Hence, Dunker communities 
have risen along the natural routes of migration. Phila- 
delphia was the port to which they came from Germany. 
Germantown was the first stop. From there colonization 
moved along the paths of communication to the west and 
south. 

However, the method is striking only by reason of the 
fact that it is a method that in an earlier day was charac- 
teristic of many sects, to a less extent. The circum- 
stance that it marked the method of Dunker expansion 
in a superlative degree and has continued down into the 
present is due to the fact that their customs, inherited 
from their German progenitors, social habits, lang- 
uage and peculiar beliefs exaggerated their con- 
sciousness of kind and postponed their assimilation to 
the social type of the place where they lived. 

That fact is the chief explanation of why this great ex- 
pansion of the Dunker population did not turn out disas- 
trously for the church. In most cases such a vast dissi- 
pation of the members of a church into the wilds of a new 
country would have meant the loss of all these members. 

Another thing that saved the Dunker church from that 
result was that she got her preachers from the 
ranks and they still remained farmers or artizans after 
they became preachers. In most cases each little group 
of Dunkers that settled in a country had at least one 
preacher among them. The multiplicity of ministers in 
the older congregations, creating petty jealousies, natur- 
ally resulted in the less successful minister emigrating 
to some place where his labors would suffer less from the 



152 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

competition of abler men and be more keenly appreciated. 
It often happened, indeed, that the colonist was the 
preacher, since, until recently, all Dunker preachers have 
been farmers, like the other members. 

Several circumstances, promoting- the isolation of the 
Dunker s, conditioned the continuance of this method. 

Until recently, the German language, which promoted 
the consciousness of likeness and differences, has been 
the language of the Dunker home. In some homes it 
still holds its own, but English in the newspaper and in 
the schools is too strong a competitor to be resisted. Not 
many years ago, I heard a German sermon in a Dunker 
church, but it is a rare thing now. 

Like their language, their peculiar faith, has set the 
Dunkers apart from their fellowmen. Settled in colonies 
or communities, their faith and their language have led 
them to convert or to u buy out" the people around them, 
if possible. 

One further influence, which has been effective in 
strengthening the Dunker consciousness of kind, has 
been the printing press. From the very beginning of 
their history they have believed in the power of the 
press. Even in Germany they printed Mack's defence 
of their peculiar doctrines.* Christopher Sauer set up 
a press in Germantown, which, although it was not 
avowedly in th^ interests of the Dunkers alone, yet 
was for the Germans, and tended to unite them in 
matters of common concern. It also was used by Sauer 
to promote the tenets of the Dunker faith. Beissel at 
Ephrata set up a press for the propagation of his views. 
There was a period in the early part of the last century, 
indeed, when literary activity among the Dunkers seemed 
to wane, but today they have a literature of their own, 

*Ho]singer, "History of the Tunkers", p. 45. 



EXPANSION 15S 

which they use effectively to spread their views and to 
develop a substantial likemindedness. All these facts, 
promoting a consciousness of kind, have given to Dunker 
expansion a method that has attracted the attention late- 
ly of many observers, but which is remarkable only be- 
cause of its survival into the present, its employment to 
the exclusion of other methods, and its dependence on 
an isolating environment for its continuance. 

It was inevitable that this passion for new lands and 
the consequent spread of the Dunkers over so broad a 
territory should have some evil results. There is no 
doubt that this scattering of the membership, weakened 
the eastern congregations at a critical time, tore mem- 
bers away from the influence of the church and isolated 
them in back- woods communities and retarded the so- 
cialization of the Dunkers for a long time. It also hin- 
dered their Americanization in language, education, 
manners, dress, beliefs and organization. 

1. It set back the Americanization of these Germans in 
the matter of language, for just at the time when civili- 
zation was catching up with their homes in the East, 
bringing English schools and neighbors, the temptation 
to sell at high prices and go West where they could buy 
cheaper land proved overwhelming and again isolated 
them in the wilderness and prairie. The result was 
that they were now separated from even the few 
educational influences of their home in the East, the 
German school, contact with their better educated min- 
isters, and Christopher Sauer's newspapers and almanacs. 

The strong consciousness of kind and their isolation 
prevented the displacement of their native tongue by the 
English for many years. Thus, as recently as 1889 the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania was granted their pe- 
tition by Annual Meeting to have the minutes of the lat- 



154 THE DUNKEU8 IN AMERICA 

ter printed in common German.* On the other hand, 
both these influences made them cling to their language, 
but the isolation was just sufficient to shut them off from 
influences that would have kept their German pure, yet 
not sufficient to prevent borrowing from the English 
about them. 

2. Likewise, the expansion of the Dunkers impeded the 
education of the children of such families as moved to 
the frontier. The Dunkers of Germantown and Ephrata 
were interested in schools for the education of the young. 
Christopher Sauer helped to build the first school at 
Germantown and was one of its trustees for many years. t 
His German almanacs and newspapers were eagerly 
sought by Germans from Pennsylvania to Georgia. But, 
it is significant that the only Dunker books printed until 
after the middle of the nineteenth century were publish- 
ed east of the Alleghanies and with but few exceptions in 
or near the centers of population, Philadelphia and 
Baltimore. X 

There is a great hiatus in the intellectual development 
of the Dunkers from 1784 to 1850. The reason for it lies 
in the expansion of the Dunkers westward into the great 
American wilderness and prairie. It was a period in 
which all the energies of these people were exhausted in 
making homes for themselves and in following the lure of 
economic opportunity. They had no time or energy to 
give to the higher things of ^life. The untamed wilder- 
ness demanded the individual attention, not only of the 
adults, but also of the children and therefore education 
fell into disrepute. 

*8ee "Classified Minutes" of 1886-1892, p 13, Art. 14. 

THolsinger, "History of the Tunkers, etc"., p 267; "Chronicon 
Ephratense", p 216. 

JSee Hildeburn, "First Issues of the Pennsylvania Press." 



EXPANSION , 155 

Another thing to be remembered is that they were 
widely scattered. Education is largely a social product, 
the incentive to which is the result of social contact. But 
contact with an educated, likeminded people was lacking. 
Therefore, imitation of the better educated people about 
them could not occur. 

Moreover, on the frontier there were few educational 
facilities. Social organizations existed only in spontane- 
ous forms and among these simple forms were few 
schools. The thoughts of the people were devoted to 
matters that had more direct connection with personal 
safety and means of subsistence. German schools for 
educating their children the Dunkers did not possess, and 
had they possessed them, they would have seen no need 
of them in their wilderness surroundings. The English 
schools were few and poor. Therefore the children grew 
up with only enough education in either language to en- 
able them to conduct necessary conversation, and to read 
the Bible in one language, generally the German. This 
was the period of transition from German to English as 
the language of the Dunkers. The process of transition 
operated to produce ignorance and neglect of education. 
The first Dunker book in English I know of was published 
in 1833 and the first Dunker newspaper in English in 1851. 
These were the first harbingers of the coming change in 
the language and culture of the Dunkers. It was in 
1850 that the first Dunker book on theology in English, 
Nead's "Theology," was published. All these circum- 
stances exaggerated the Pietistic tendencies latent in 
Dunker circles against education. 

3. Isolated in German settlements on the frontiers 
these sturdy Germans clung to their ancestral customs 
and manners. Their ancestors had been common peasant 
people with the manners and customs of that class. 



156 THE DUNKES IN AMERICA 

Their situation in scattered communities in the West 
perpetuated these peculiarities and helped to retard 
the change to American habits. The fact that these 
frontier congregations were too remote from the main 
body of the church to share in the development for long 
periods explains many of the divergencies of practice in 
the church. For example, the two modes of Feet Washing, 
discussion over which subject threatened to disrupt the 
church at one time and gave occasion for grave discussion 
and legislation by many Annual Meetings, originated in the 
early period of Dunker expansion, before the constitution 
and practices of the church had been developed very far. 
Moreover, this period of Dunker history gave rise to the 
variety of Dunkers known as the Far Western Brethren 
of Kentucky and Illinois. They were simply a local vari- 
ety of Dunkers that had not shared in the general develop- 
ment of the main body but had undergone a development 
of their own.* To this period also can be traced the 
different customs observed in the eating of the Lord's 
Supper. Some held that the only kind of meat used in 
the supper should be lamb's flesh. 

4. Taught to believe that plainness of dress was a sign 
of godliness, they had every reason to continue so to be- 
lieve in their backwoods 1 life in the settlements scattered 
far from the centers of culture and refinement. Hence, 
their enviroment again retarded the civilizing influences 
of dress. 

5. In like manner, their isolation from other elements 
of the social population was complete enough to preserve 
intact their beliefs and practices. In doctrine this 
was a period of stagnation. The traditions of the 
fathers was the test of orthodoxy. The passion for 

*For details in regard to this movement see Holsinger, "History of the 
Tunkers", p 762. 



EXPANSION 



157 



social unity also operated in favor of this tendency. 

6. The spread of the D ankers had a similar effect on 
their social organization. Development in this line took 
place in the East first and then gradually enveloped the 
churches on the outskirts. Had the Dunkers confined 
themselves to Penns3 T lvania there is no doubt that the 
completion of their social constitution would have come 
much sooner than it did, and doubtless would have been 
somwhat different. The frontier congregations carried 
with them the ideal of the simple organization with which 
they were familiar. 

However, the development of the constitution of the 
church was going on rapidly in the regions where the 
congregations were close enough together for frequent 
contact with one another. As soon as two or more con- 
gregations began to have relations with each other the 
evolution of the constitution of the Dunker church began. 

At first it was spontaneous and sporadic, e. g., the visit 
of one congregation by members from another. That 
was its beginning. Hence, the beginning of the develop- 
ment goes back to the first "visitation" made by Peter 
Becker and his fellows from Germantown to their unor- 
ganized companions in faith at Coventry and Conestoga 
in 1723. 

The organization of a definite inter-congregational as- 
sembly, however, did not occur until 1742. Then, it arose 
specifically as an instrument of protection of the Dunker 
congregations from what their leaders felt was a snare 
set for them in the Synods of Count Zinzendorf, who had 
come to Pennsylvania to quiet the strife between the va- 
rious sects thereby organizing them all into a "church of 
God in the Spirit", wherein each should be allowed per- 
fect liberty to believe and practice what he wished, but 
in which each sect should respect the beliefs of the oth- 



158 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

ers, and cease their quarreling over theological and eccle- 
siastical differences. After the third Synod the Dunker 
representative from Coventry, George Adam Martin, 
went back to his congregation and reported to his elder, 
Martin Urner, that he thought the Count's Synods were 
for the purpose of enticing people back to infant baptism 
and the "Babylon" of the established churches. Togeth- 
er they decided to u get ahead of the danger, as some 
Baptists (Dunkers) had already been smitten with this 
vain doctrine, and to hold a yearly conference, or as we 
called it, a Great Assembly (Grosse Versammelung), and 
at once fixed the time and place."* This was the begin- 
ning of the first inter-congregational "Big Meeting" of 
the Dunkers, out of which has grown the Annual Meet- 
ing, the organization that governs the Dunker church, 
in all matters of doctrine and practice, f Adoption of it 
is an instance of the process of conflict by imitation. 
Its ultimate cause was consciousness of kind. 

Before 1778, or, possibly 1791, these "Big Meetings", 
as they were always called before 1832, did not meet reg- 
ularly year by year.:]: At first these meetings were sim- 
ply for conference and devotion. There was always held 
in connection with them a Love Feast, and the settlement 
of difficulties was only a minor matter. They were not 
meetings in which legislation binding upon all the con- 
gregations was passed. That conception of them came 
only with the lapse of time. At first, they were simply 
advisory. Many times they met without having to settle 
any difficulties at all. In such cases they were devoted 

*See "Chronicon Ephratense", p 245. 

fFor a very good chapter on the origin of Annual Meeting see Brum- 
baugh, "History of the Brethren", p 471 f. 

tHowever, George Adam Martin seems to imply that in 1757 already they 
were held annually. See "Chronicon Ephratense", p 245. Cf. Holsinger, 
"History of the Tunkers, etc.", p 809 ; Brumbaugh, "History of the Breth- 
ren", p 490. 



EXPANSION 159 

entirely to preaching and devotions. Thus, before 1830 
the minutes of these mettings are incomplete. None are 
known to exist from the period before 1778. In 1859 the 
first committee, the names of whose members have been 
preserved was sent by Annual Meeting to a local church 
to settle difficulties. The first Standing Committee of 
Annual Meeting whose names have come down to us was 
that of 1785.* It was not until 1882 that the constitution 
was so far developed that the decisions of Annual Meet- 
tings were declared to be mandatory, i. e. binding on the 
local churches. Until 1868 the constitution of the Stand- 
ing Committee, the very centre of the whole organization, 
remained practically on the same basis that it had when 
the Dunkers borrowed it from the Zinzendorf Synods. 
Its members were elected, not as since then, by the dis- 
tricts, but by the local congregation where the Meeting 
was held. Even to this day the method of getting 
queries to the Annual Meeting is based upon the method 
that was invented and used in the Zinzendorf Synods, viz., 
through the Standing Committee, not through individ- 
uals, f 

Why did the Dunker organization develop so slowly? 
The reason, I think, will be found in the scattering of the 
Dunker forces in their expansion over the new lands of 
the United States. The development of the social con- 
stitution of any people is dependent upon close and fre- 
quent contact. The depletion of the congregations in the 
more thickly settled communities through emigration of 
the members to new communities hindered the develop- 
ment in the former, while the development in the latter 
had to wait on growth of population, and of means of com- 
munication and association. 

♦"Classified Minutes", p 382, 388. 

tSee Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 479. 



160 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

In all these ways the effect of the spread of the Dunk- 
ers was to retard their socialization. While in the end it 
resulted well for the church, for the time being it impe- 
ded her progress and brought about the conditions that 
made inevitable all her trouble.* From one point of view, 
this period might fitly be called the period of stagnation 
of the Dunker church. From another point of view, this 
was the time of her preparation to take her place among 
the useful Christian denominations of America. Expan- 
sion impeded the evolution of the Dunker church, but it 
made possible greater things when the process of social- 
ization once began. 

Thus, in culture, doctrine, customs and organization 
the expansion of the Bunkers impeded progress. 

*See Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren," p 528 f. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Unification of the Dunkers after their Ex- 
pansion in America. 

The term ''unification", as used in this chapter, signi- 
fies the process by which the Dunkers developed into a 
voluntary, cultural society, with a common culture, com- 
mon beliefs, common purposes, and a unified organiza- 
tion to which the members gave loyal adherence. This is 
a part of the process of socialization, of which the other 
part is liberalization, to be treated in the next chapter. 

In explaining the origin of the sect in Europe in Part 
I, the early steps in that process have already been no- 
ticed. Some of these steps were repeated here in Amer- 
ica, but many of them were not. The aim of this chapter 
is to show how the Dunker church developed from a peo- 
ple who were held together rather loosely by a feeling of 
likeness to each other and by an antipathy to those differ- 
ent from themselves, and who existed in scattered con- 
gregations here and there throughout the various sec- 
tions of America, into a closely united organization with 
a well developed social constitution, a well defined body of 
beliefs, and customs, and a membership very much alike 
in feelings, thoughts and purposes. In order to do so 
it will be well to summarize briefly the stage of social 
development reached by the Dunkers before their expan- 
sion in America. 

The spread of the DunkerS over what is now the Unit- 
ed States resulted in arresting the process of socialization 
that had begun before their expansion had really com- 
menced. 

While the spread of the Dunkers had been going on 
from their first arrival in America, it did not assume such 



162 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

proportions as seriously to interfere with their natural 
social development until the great movement to the West, 
subsequent to the Revolutionary War, began. Their ex- 
pansion previous to that time had been largely to the 
South, into the Valley of Virginia and adjacent valleys so 
that communication between the congregations was pos- 
sible. When, however, the great outpouring of people to 
the cheap and fertile lands west of the Alleghanies com- 
menced, intercommunication was not possible on the same 
scale as formerly, until, after the lapse of a considerable 
time, railroads and post ]ines were opened up from the 
East into these regions. Accordingly the social develop- 
ment in the East was retarded and in the West it was 
stopped entirely for a time. 

The Dunker population in America in 1790 was not 
more than 1463 persons.* These were scattered in thirty- 
three congregations, from Germantown, Pennsylvania 
to South Carolina. 

After the first few years, the growth of the Dunker 
population was by natural increase. At first, and to a 
small degree always, the increase of membership came 
from the German settlers near them, who had no church 
of their own confession in the immediate neighborhood, t 
Therefore, the growth of the membership was slow, in 
spite of the fact that Dunker families were large. An- 
other thing that worked in the same direction was that 
during this period of expansion, in fact, since the Dunk- 
ers had broken with the followers of Beissel, they had 
had a prejudice against revivals. And, again, their ab- 
sorption in the task of making homes on the frontiers 
tended to draw their interest away from an increase of 
membership. The result was that, when the great ex- 
pansion began at the close of the Revolution, the Dunker 

*See Chapters III and VI. 

fHolsinger, "History of the Tunkers, etc.," p 475. 



UNIFICATION 163 

membership was just sufficient in its ratio to the other 
elements of the population to start their social develop- 
ment. 

The Bunkers had gone through the steps in the devel- 
opment of the social mind that are known as like response 
to the same stimulus, attainment of mental and practical 
resemblance, consciousness of kind and concerted pur- 
poses of a sort, before they had left Europe. Their soc- 
ial experiences in America, up to the period of expansion, 
had brought them only a little beyond the point of de- 
velopment reached in Europe. Communication between 
the various congregations of Dunkers close together, as- 
sociation in occasional Love Feasts, and co-operation in the 
"Big Meetings", at which people were often in at- 
tendance from far distant congregations for the Love 
Feast, or, for the settlement of some trouble, or 
the decision of some question that had risen in that 
local church, helped to develop a reciprocal recognition 
of likeness that was beyond the point hitherto reached 
in the development of the social mind. 

As for the social organization, at this time it had also 
progressed a step beyond the development reached by the 
organization in Europe. This advance is evidenced by 
the adoption of a conference to meet annually, in imita- 
tion of Zinzendorf's Synods, in order to defend the 
Dunkers against the danger of being seduced from their 
peculiar doctrines and strict sectarianism. The con- 
ference they adopted was a purposive association that 
had for its aim the preservation of Dunker doctrines and 
ideals. It resulted in a further development of Dunker 
organization. Furthermore, it fitted admirably into the 
custom, that had risen of visiting neighboring congrega- 
tions and holding Love Feasts, which custom had originated 
spontaneously in the earliest days of their history in 



164 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

America in the desire of Becker and his fellows to gather 
together the scattered Bunkers into an organization.* 
However, at the time of which we now speak, this devel- 
opment of the organization had not proceeded far beyond 
that half-purposive, half-spontaneous stage, just noticed, 
which existed as early as 1742. Thus, the character of 
the decision of the first Annual Meeting, whose decisions 
have reached us, was that of advice in regard to a 
local ease. The meeting was still called a "council" 
and the decision a "counsel, "f The ideal of unity 
however, was just beginning to take shape, which 
ideal is always prerequisite to the development of 
organization. X 

As soon as the churches in the older East had recovered 
from the effects of the dispersion, and other social 
elements began to crowd in upon the Bunkers, social 
development began again. As always, it began with a 
change in the conditions of the population. 

1. The conditions of social development lie in the popu- 
lation. Its density, and its homogeneity or heterogeneity 
determine whether the society shall be a developing 
or a stagnant one. The families were large and were 
brought up in the church. Consequently, the Dunk- 
er population tended to be homogeneous. One thing 
however, worked against this tendency. The con- 
gregations were scattered over so wide an expanse 
of country and the means of communication were sc 
meagre, that variations in social type arose. Thus, in 

*See Chapter II, Part II. 

t "Classified Minutes", p 206, 216, 247, 282, 347, 350. 

{"Classified Minutes", p 269, 278, 353, etc., "It has been concluded in 
union". "We have considered and weighed the matter in union." "For 
the Spirit ©f God leads into all truth and union v . 



UNIFICATION 



165 



the years following their spread there arose local varie- 
ties of Dunkers, such as u the South Carolina brethren," 
w 'the Thurmanites," "the John A. Bowman Church" and 
"the Far Western Brethren."* The homogeneous mem- 
bership resulting from growth of membership by natural 
increase accounts for the predominant passion for unity 
characteristic of this period. On the other hand, the var- 
iations gave that measure of heterogeneity that demanded 
measures of coercion towards the individual. These facts 
provided conditions of progress. 

Furthermore, the growth of population about them had 
an influence upon their social progress. It provided the 
unlike social element that developed consciousness of 
kind and gave rise to conflict of opinion, that drove fche 
Dunkers to the defence of their doctrines and customs 
and to the perfecting of their local congregational organ- 
izations, f 

2. The development of the social mind of the Dunkers, 
in the period following their expansion, was chiefly in the 
matter of concerted volition. 

For some time after the scattering of the membership, 
the consciousness of kind already developed in Europe 
and America, while perhaps just as strong in the local 
congregation, had no chance to grow in the larger circle 
of brethren scattered over the larger territory. Soon, 
however, letters began to be sent back and forth and vis- 
its were made between churches situated along natural 
routes of travel. On occasion, when it became known 
that a "big meeting" was to be held at a certain church 
for the settlement of a difficulty or for the purpose of 
discussing a question of interest, or even simply to hold 
a love feast, those that were near enough attended. 

*See "Classified Minutes," p 135, 341, 345, 356. 

tThere are no statistics of Dunker population from this period. 



166 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

Here through social intercourse and, by means of conflict, 
toleration and imitation, the consciousness of kind was 
strengthened and concerted action was taken in various 
matters. Thus, in the first Annual Meeting whose min- 
utes we have preserved, "After much reflection, in the 
fear of the Lord it has been concluded in union that the 
brethren who have taken the attest should recall it before 
a justice, and give up their certificate, and recall, and 
apologize in their churches and truly repent for their er- 
ror, etc."* Many more examples might be given of the 
same tendency to develop concerted action on the part of 
those congregations so situated that they could get to- 
gether. Then, as connection with the congregations 
scattered throughout the West was established, this same 
process was repeated. However, the greater social de- 
velopment of the region east of the Alleghanies, as well 
as the greater number of Dunker congregations there, 
determined that the social development of the Dunkers 
should proceed most rapidly there. Consequently, it was 
in that section that concerted volition developed first 
among the Dunker congregations. 

The mode of likemindedness found among the Dunkers 
of this period of socialization was formal, or dogmatic. In 
this likemindedness there were two factors, -belief and 
deductive reasoning, f The Dunkers had received as tra- 
ditions certain dogmatic doctrines and certain church 
rites, or customs. They defended them by a process of 
deductive reasoning, as did all the other churches of the 
time. What these were has been noticed in Chapter II, 
Part I. 

Now, the effect of the spread of the Dunkers upon these 
beliefs was, (1) that their rationalization was postponed, 

*"Classified Minutes", p 269. 

tSee Giddings' "Inductive Sociology," p 145 f. 



UNIFICATION 167 

and (2) that opportunity was given for differences of be- 
lief and custom to arise. The result was that the like- 
mindedness could not develop into the next higher stage, 
the deliberative. Therefore, when about 1850 conditions 
became such that the long separated congregations could 
communicate and associate together, they became con- 
scious of the fact that, while they all agreed as to their 
mode of concerted volition, they found in different con- 
gregations, in widely separated parts of the country dif- 
ferent beliefs in existence. They had no sooner discov- 
ered this fact, however, than there arose in their minds 
the ideal of uniformity of belief and practice. It was 
such an ideal that led to the great development in organ- 
ization that took place in this period, which organization 
was the machinery by which uniformity was to be real- 
ized. Moreover, this passion for unity accounts for the 
developments that occurred in the doctrines of the 
Church. For example, the article of belief as to dress was 
indefinite. All that was demanded was that it should be 
plain. In defining, at a later time, what plainness meant, 
however, uniform garbs were finally adopted for the 
women and officers of the church, and a uniform way of 
wearing the beard and combing the hair was prescribed 
forthe male members. Their morality was made uniform 
negatively, i. e. ail members were to refrain from certain 
actions, such as making or selling intoxicants or tobacco, 
keeping slaves, wearing gold, attending certain amuse- 
ments, etc., through the whole catalogue of negative, Pur- 
itanical virtues. To break the uniform rule of morality 
came to be punishable by exclusion from the Church. 
The Minutes of Annual Meeting at first were considered 
merely as advice or counsel, but after the social develop- 
ment had gone far enough a policy of coercion was adopt- 
ed and the decisions became mandatory, and acceptance 



168 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

of them a test of fellowship.* The later position was im- 
possible in the early days, because the means of commu- 
nicating traditions and traditional usages were imper- 
fect, but with the growth of railroads, travel was facili- 
tated and it became possible to have every congregation 
of the church represented at the Annual Meeting. 

Before the rise of the church papers the Dunkers felt the 
necessity of devising the plan whereby the decisions of An- 
nual Meeting might be disseminated. They therefore 
proposed to create a committee of ''several brethren that 
are experienced and sound in the faith, and send them, two 
and two, with the decisions of the Annual Meeting, and 
let them visit ail the congregations in the United States, 
and establish them all in the same order according to 
example (Acts 15) ". f Although this plan was not adopted 
it reveals the consciousness that some plan must be 
found to make the church one in doctrine and practice. 
About 1851 the "Gospel Visitor", the first Dunker news- 
paper since the days of Christopher Sauer, was origin- 
ated.:): This and other papers, which soon arose in the 
church, provided a means for the easy communication of 
the ideals held by the majority of the members, and 
developed the formal likemindedness that had character- 
ized the Dunkers throughout their history. The appeal 
to tradition was made in the earliest minutes of Annual 
Meeting that have reached us, and had been made even 
before this, according to George Adam Martin.** It grew 

*Cf. the decisions of 1805, 1848, 1865, 1882 in "Classified Minutes," p2S, 31 
fArt. 8, 1849, "Classified Minutes", p 28. 

JHolsinger, "History of the Tunkers, etc.," p351f; "Classified Minutes", 
p 323 f . 

**See "Chronicon Ephratense", p 245, "Always appealing to their prede 
cessors, saying the old Brethren in Germany did so and we must not depart 
from their ways". 



UNIFICATION 169 

ever more insistent as the years went on and as the 
means of communication improved. Thus, the two 
instruments whereby the dogmatic likemindedness was 
cultivated were the Annual Meeting and, of less impor- 
tance in this period, the church papers. 

3. The most important development in the Dunker 
church in this period was that of the social organization. 
While the growth of population and the development of 
the social mind were necessary conditions of the develop- 
ment of the organization, it is undoubtedly true that the 
latter had a most important reciprocal effect upon both 
the former. So complex are the processes by which a 
society grows that now one is cause and the other effect, 
and now the relation of the two are reversed. 

Before 1742 there was no organized or regular relations 
between the various Dunker congregations. There were 
only occasional visits back and forth. From that time 
there was an annual gathering called by the Dunker s at 
that time and for many years to come "a great assembly" 
(eine grosse Versammelung.)* Up to this time the local 
congregation was the church. Development had not gone 
far enough to demand a further organization. But with 
the growth of numbers and population it was inevitable 
that the Dunkers must determine the organ for the reali- 
zation of the higher unity that was beginning to assume 
prominence in the social mind. 

There were three spheres in which the development of 
their social organization proceeded, the local congrega- 
tion, District Meeting and the Annual Meeting. 

The local congregations- development consisted chiefly 
in the changes that occurred in the ministry. On the 
basis of the self-governing local church that existed 
among them in Germany, with preachers chosen from 

*"Chronicon Ephratense", p 245. 



170 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

their own ranks, there gradually evolved the three de- 
grees of the regular ministry and the diaconate. 

In the Minutes of 1856, Art. 20, is found the first refer- 
ence to what was called the first degree in the ministry. 
The article runs thus, "Is it the rule and order among 
the Brethren to forward a brother to baptize at the 
same time he is put in the ministry? Ans. — No." This 
shows that it had become the custom to make a dis- 
tinction between the duties of ministers who had been 
for a longer or shorter time respectively in office.* In 
1864 the question first came clearly before Annual Meet- 
ing, "What authority have we in the New Testament 
for three orders or grades in the ministry"? This ques- 
tion was deferred for answer to the next Meeting with 
the recommendation that u the Brethren examine the 
Scriptures upon the subject." It was answered thus, 
u We have plain Scripture to teach a grade of offices in 
the church. (See Eph. iv, 11) : 'He gave some, apostles ; 
some, prophets; some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and 
teachers' ". Thus, the development in the office of the 
ministry that had been going on since a very early period 
of their history in America, came to official completion by 
this decision of the Annual Meeting. The duties of the 
first degree ministry were set forth in the form of instal- 
lation prescribed by the Annual Meeting of 1874, Art. 8. 
According to this his duties are not onerous, t 

*This practice probably grew out 'of the earlier practice in Pennsylvania 
of putting a man into the ministry on trial. — Brumbaugh, "History of the 
Brethren", p 391. 

fHe is authorized "to exhort and to preach as an assistant to the elder and 
older ministers, as they may give him liberty to do so. It is his duty, how- 
ever, faithfully to attend the meetings of the Church, and, when liberty is 
given, to exhort or preach, and do it humbly, and willingly, and faithfully, as 
the Lord will afford him grace to do." In case none of the older ministers 
should come to the appointment, it is his duty to proceed with the service 
according to the usual order of the Brethren to the best of his ability, but 



UNIFICATION 171 

In the same year a form of installation was formulated 
for the second degree ministry also. The duties of this 
office are more important.* 

The form for the ordination of an elder, as the third 
and highest degree in the ministry was called, was not 
adopted by the Annua] Meeting until 1877. His duties 
are carefully defined and are very important. f 

he cannot make any appointments for service on his own account. He can, 
however, preach funerals without the consent of the older ministers. He 
must dress according to the custom of the church and adhere to the gen- 
eral order of the brotherhood in all matters of ^nonconformity to the 
world. He cannot baptize or officiate at the Lord's Supper except with 
the consent of the older ministers. — "Classified Minutes", p 103, 104. 

*He was authorized by the Church "to appoint meetings for preaching, 
according to the general order of the Brethren, to administer the ordi- 
nance of Baptism, and, in the absence of an elder, to take the counsel of 
the church on the admission of a candidate for baptism, to serve the com- 
munion in the absence of any elder, or, at his or their request, if present; 
to solemnize the right of marriage according to the laws of the State 
and the usages of the Church. In brief, to perform all the duties of an 
ordained elder, except that you have no authority to install officers in the 
Church, neither by giving a charge, as I am now doing, nor by laying on 
hands in ordaining a brother into the full degree of the ministry. You 
have also no authority to preside in the council-meetings of the •church in 
which official members of the church are to be dealt with. You have no 
authority to go into the acknowledged territory of any organized church 
to make appointments for preaching unless called by the elder or council 
of said church." Furthermore, he must submit himself to his elder and 
be amenable to the church, in all things.— "Classified Minutes", p 107. 

t"In ordaining you an elder, the church gives you all the right and au- 
thority belonging to the ministry, such as presiding in council-meetings 
in which official members are tried, at home or abroad ; if you are called to 
do so, in District or Annual Meetings; to give the charge to deacons, or 
ministers, and install them into their respective offices." It was his duty, 
furthermore, to be subject to the elders, or bishops, older than himself, to 
manifest no arbitrary, self-willed or domineering spirit, to counsel with 
the official brethren and with the church before doing anything of impor- 
tance, to faithfully preach the Word, care for the wantsjof the membership, 
be an example in word and life to all the church and to be subject to the 
order of the general brotherhood in faith and practice, in all things, as 
defined by Annual Meeting.— "Classified Minutes", p 110, 111. 



172 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

The office of deacon or "visiting brother "; as he was 
described in 1835, is mentioned and his duties defined by 
the Annual meeting in that year, Art. 15. He was care- 
fully subordinated to the ministry as a kind of or do minor* 

Both ministers and deacons were limited in their ac- 
tivity by their subordination to the church, the fountain 
of authority. Both classes were elected by the church 
and could be relieved of their offices by the church. Only 
the minister of the third degree, the elder, was ordained 
by the laying on of hands and prayer. In the course of 
the development there was great pressure brought to 

*His duties are (1) to assist the minis Lers in making the annual visit to 
each member of the church to see whether he is in love and fellowship 
with all the members, or in case of division of the field for the purpose of 
that visit, or, in case the ministers are sick, he is to take the initiative in 
the visit in connection with whatever other brethren are deemed necessary; 
(2) to accompany the ministers to the investigation of any trouble in the 
church, or, provided it is not of special importance, to investigate it him- 
self, when so required by the ministry of the church; (3) to oversee the 
poor of the church, visit the sick, to distribute money or grain to the needy 
and to keep a strict account of his receipts and expenditures on this ac- 
count; (4) to bring anything he may hear of that demands attention to the 
notice of the ministry; (5) to assist ministers in the public worship by 
reading the Scripture and praying, and, in case no minister is present, to 
conduct the service, and to accompany a minister, if the latter requests it, 
to another district to hold meetings; and (6) to serve the tables at the Love 
Feasts, making all the necessary preparations for such occasions. In 1835, 
when this elaborate definition of duties was officially sanctioned the fifth 
(5) kind of duties was limited by the caveat that "it was the counsel of the 
old brethren that it is not their (the deacons') calling to rise to their feet 
in order to exhort". That is, it was thought best to confine their functions 
at public service, in the absence of a minister, to the conduct of the service, 
exclusive of the preaching, but if they did speak, they should do so sit- 
ting.— "Classified Minutes", p 95 f . In 1841 and 1843 he was further limit- 
ed in this respect and in 1846 it was decided that a deaeon has no right to 
appoint a meeting and preach, unless authorized by the church, but should 
confine himself to the duties for which he has been chosen. In 1871 it was 
decided that, when deacons spoke at all in meeting, they should do so 
standing. In 1846 it was decided that a deacon could not be ordained to 
the office of bishop.— "Classified Minutes", p 108. 






UNIFICATION 17 S 

bear upon the Meeting to have the other officers ordained 
likewise, but the demand for a visible incarnation of the 
unity of the church was too strong to permit the lesser 
officials to have the same treatment as the bishop of the 
Church.* 

The relation of the ministry to its own and neighboring 
congregations gradually was defined. For example, as 
early as 1822 it was decided that an elder should not pro- 
ceed to any course of action, without consulting the 
church. In 1849 it was decided that if the elder commit- 
ted an error, he must confess to the church, like any 
other member. There was to be no chance for the growth 
of a hierarchy in that direction. The church was to be 
supreme. In 1879 it was decided that the ministry of 
the church, or all the officials together, have no authority 
to withhold a question of interest from the congregation. 
A minister has no authority, except in case of great 
danger that a congregation may depart from the order of 
the Church, to go into a neighboring congregation and 
meddle with its affairs, unless he be invited by the con- 
gregation or its elder. It was 1863 before this was clear- 
ly defined. The exception noted was made under the 
growth of the ideal of uniformity. In that case, however, 
the adjoining elders, not one elder alone, were to see that 
the congregation did not go astray, f This is an evidence 
that the seat of authority was being transferred from the 
local congregations to the Annual Meeting. 

Thus, in the local church, the organization of the min- 
istry developed from a formless one, in which there were 
ministers differing from one another only in natural abil- 
ities and age, to a ministry with three grades and a dia- 
conate, each having clearly defined duties and reciprocal 

*"Classified Minutes", p 95—112. 
t ( 'Classified Minutes", p 115, 116. 



174 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

relations. The growth was from an undifferentiated to a 
differentiated ministry. The constitution of the local 
congregation had become complex. 

As local churches grew strong and their territory 
broadened, it was found necessary to divide each one into 
several districts. In 1843 the decision was first made 
that each division constituted a separate church, even 
though one bishop might oversee them all, and that only 
the members of a particular district had the right to vote 
for ministers or deacons in that district.* Thus, the re- 
lations of congregations to each other were gradually 
assuming definiteness. The component society of the 
larger unit was developing. 

In 1857 the relation of one congregation to another was 
more clearly defined by the ruling that no congregation 
has the right to interfere in the affairs of another by 
restoring u a member to his place in the church, when he 
had been excluded by another branch of the church, with 
out the concurrence of the church which excluded him".t 
In 1881 and 1882 the final step in the development of the 
local congregation was taken, when in consequence of the 
Old Order and Progressive divisions it was decided that 
in each congregation the portion that remained loyal to 
the ruling of Annual Meeting is the church, no matter 
how small a minority it may be. This was based on a 
decision of 1869 that a minority of a congregation may 
act with full authority in carrying out the decisions of 
Annual Meeting, "as the Annual Meeting is of higher 
authority than any one church".:); There the process 
of unifying the organization became complete. 

Beginning with 1788 there was developed by 1885 a 

*"Classified Minutes", p 90. 
f'Classified Minutes", p 55. 
t "Classified Minutes", p 57-60; Cf. "Revised Minutes", p 43, Art. 30, 1882. 



UNIFICATION 175 

complete theory of the relation of individual members to 
the local congregation. At first the purpose of such defi- 
nition was, to prevent immoral members from imposing 
on a congregation that knew nothing about them, by re- 
quiring them to present certificates from their home 
church. The moving about that the expansion of the 
Dunkers required accellerated this development, while 
the conditions on which a certificate was granted became 
ever more strict under the growing requirements of 
church membership, owing to the development of the 
rules of Annual Meeting known as "the order". In 1842 
Annual Meeting decided that a local church has a right 
to make resolutions, which if founded upon the Gospel, 
are binding upon all the members. Who should say 
whether they were according to the Gospel? Annual 
Meeting. But in 1850, this apparent freedom of the local 
church was limited by the ruling that "no district or 
church has any right to make changes in anything what- 
soever, contrary to ancient order, without proper investi- 
gation before, and the general consent of the Annual 
Meeting. In 1863 it was decided that a local congrega- 
tion cannot "be congregational, or act independent from 
the churches of our Fraternity, and still be in full union 
with the church", "according to the Gospel and the order 
of the Brethren".* Hence, the local church has author- 
ity over the individual member only when the church is 
in submission to Annual Meeting-striking evidence of 
the growth of the desire for unity. 

In 1856 a proposal to form "districts of five, six or 
more, adjoining churches, for the purpose of meeting 
jointly at least once a year, settling difficulties, etc., and 
thus lessening the business of our "Yearly Meeting", 

*"Classified Minutes", p 54, 55. 



176 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

was approved by Annual Meeting.* Not until 1866, how- 
ever, had the church organization been so far developed 
that the Annual Meeting enacted a scheme of district 
organization called District Meeting. Then it was rec- 
ommended "that each State form itself into convenient 
District Meetings", and the plan of organization was 
minutely described.! By this invention a complete 
scheme of church organization was formulated that 
changed the theory of the government in many respects. 
For example, it became impossible now to take questions 
directly from the local congregation to Annual Meeting 
as hitherto, except that any member who had fallen under 
the condemnation of the church might appeal to Annual 
Meeting by presenting a petition signed by a number of 
the members of the church.:}: 

Thus, with increasing membership and the growth 
of congregations, and with the growth of means of com- 
munication, the variations of doctrine and practice, that 
the years of isolation following the expansion had engen- 
dered, became apparent and demanded settlement under 
the growing ideal of unity. The District Meeting was an 
invention for the division of social labor. The invention 
was contingent upon the growth of the Dunkers numer- 
ically and upon the development of means of communica- 

*"Classified Minutes", p 50. 

fThe Meeting was to be constituted by one or two representatives from 
each organized church. The style of procedure was to be as much like tbe 
ordinary council meetiag of the local church as possible. Their duty 
was to settle questions of interest local to that district and thus assist 
Annual Meeting in the transaction of the increasing business. Hitherto 
all questions of merely local interest that could not be settled in the local 
congregation was carried to Annual Meeting. No business could come 
before District Meeting until it had first passed through the church in 
which it originated. 

^'Classified Minutes", p 13. 



UNIFICATION 177 

tion and the consequent development of dogmatic like- 
mindedness. 

The process of socialization is illustrated best, perhaps, 
in the development of the Annual Meeting. Frequency 
of communication and association, growth of reflective 
sympathy and the rise of the ideals that dominated their 
thought led to the development. This tendency was 
furthered by the necessity of pronouncing upon questions 
of doctrine, of interpreting customs and of unifying 
diverse elements in the membership. Permanence of 
cooperation in Annual Meeting showed the wisdom of 
such a meeting for the exchange of views, for the settle- 
ment of local difficulties and for pronouncements on 
difficult questions, while the pleasures of the meeting 
also made for its continuance. 

It may seem remarkable that no great development 
took place in this body until 1866. The committee, whose 
business it was to consider all matters presented and to 
decide what should come before the Meeting, and out 
of which body the Standing Committee was finally 
developed, suffered practically no change until 1868. 
Furthermore, the method of presenting queries to Annual 
Meeting is a survival from the time of its origin in 1742. 

It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that there 
was no development until that late date. In minor matters 
many changes were made. In 1813 the necessity of hav- 
ing some from each church present at Annual Meeting 
found voice. In 1832 it was decided that the date of be- 
ginning the Meeting should be changed to Pentecost and 
that the opening service should be held on Sunday instead 
of Friday or Saturday as hitherto.* In 1848 it was recom- 

*"Classified Minutes", p 7. The public preaching service and Love 
Feast occupied Sunday and the business sessions began on Monday. After 
much discussion in 1846 it was decided to go back to the plan of having the 



178 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

mended that Monday following Whitsuntide should be 
observed u as a day of general fasting and prayer", hence 
the business did not begin until Tuesday. That is the 
present practice. Monday is now occupied with Educa- 
tional, Sunday School and Missionary Meetings. In 1851 
and 1855 it was decided that there should be no commun- 
ion meeting in connection with the Annual Meeting, be- 
cause of the great crowds in attendance.* 

In 1813 the Annual Meeting was urging the overseers 
of the churches to advertise the time and place of holding 
it, so that more might attend. In 1847 the attendance 
had become so large that the meeting was made a delegate 
body, with the provision that "not more than two be sent 
from each church, with a written certificate, containing, 
also, the queries to be presented (by the church which 
they represent) to the Yearly Meeting."! Finally, in 
1882 representation was placed on the basis of one dele- 
gate for each two hundred members, or fraction thereof, 
in a congregation, not to exceed two delegates from any 
congregation. While all members present might join in 
the discussion, all questions that did not pass by unani- 
mous consent were to be decided by a two- thirds major- 
ity of the delegates present. Each member of the Stand- 
ing Committee was counted as one delegate in this voting. 

By equal strides, with the development in organization 
went the growth in the theory of the authority of the An- 
nual Meeting. As early as 1805 we find a minute that 
says, "Further, it has been considered, that when there 
is made a conclusion at the big Yearly Meeting, and there 

private business sessions on Friday and Saturday. Finally, in 1847 it was 
decided that the new plan of holding the business sessions, after the Sun- 
day services, was best. 

•"Classified Minutes", p 10, 11. 
t"Clas9ified Minutes", p 8. 



UNIFICATION 179 

are members who would not heed, nor conduct themselves 
accordingly, it has been concluded unitedly, that when 
such persons cannot convince the Church by evidence 
from Holy Scripture, and would or did rise up against 
said Church conclusion, would not hear or obey at all, in 
such case we could not well do otherwise, but after suf- 
ficient and friendly admonition, set them back from the 
breaking of bread until they learn to do better and be- 
come obedient. "* This is the penalty of suspension, not 
expulsion. In 1848 a query was sent up asking whether 
it would not be expedient to refer the decisions of An- 
nual Meeting back to the congregations for final approv- 
al before they became binding, but it was decided u that 
it would not be expedient so to do, as it would be the 
means of accumulating the amount of business, "f How- 
ever, in 1850 it was decided that anyone not satisfied 
with a decision could, with the consent of his con- 
gregation, bring it before another Annual Meeting for 
reconsideration. 

The stricter practice began with a decision in 1858 in 
regard to the case of a private member, who held the coun- 
sel of the Meeting in disrespect. Tt was decided that the 
individual should be admonished and, if he refused to 
hear, "should be dealt with according to Matt, xviii/'t 
At that time the desire for unanimity had not yet be- 
come so controlling that the Meeting was willing to go 
any length to secure it, for in reply to a question as to 
whether a minister and some members of a congregation, 
who had violated the decisions of Annual Meeting, should 
u not fall into the hands of brethren of adjacent districts, 
as offenders, and to be dealt with as such," it was decid- 

*' 'Classified Minutes", p 28. 
-(-"Classified Minutes," p 28. 
ilbid, p 29. 



180 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

ed that the means already in use were "sufficient to give 
the teachers and housekeepers and members in general, 
the decisions of our Annual Council for the perfecting of 
love and union throughout the Brotherhood," that "the 
Gospel, with the practice, or order, consistent with the 
Gospel, will preserve the union of the Brotherhood." 

In 1860 a further step towards the absolute authority 
of the Annual Meeting was taken in a decision in reply 
to the query, "Is it, then, consistent with our prof ession, 
(that the New Testament was their only rule of faith and 
practice), to make a strict observance of the Minutes of 
the Annual Council a test of fellowship?" The answer 
was, "The decisions of the Annual Meeting are obligatory 
until such decisions shall be repealed by the same au- 
thority". However, the Meeting was not yet prepared 
to stand by what was involved in that decision, as is 
shown by the answer to the query in 1865. "Does the 
Annual Council make laws, or give advice only, in cases 
where it has no direct Gospel on the subject?" The re- 
ply was, "It gives advice only." In the struggles with 
the increasiDg number of those who rebelled against the 
growing power of Annual Meeting the theory gradually 
assumed its final form. In 1871 it was decided to disci- 
pline brethren who spoke or wrote disrespectfully of the 
decisions of the Annual Meeting. The final step was 
taken in 1882, when the Annual Meeting granted a peti- 
tion from some District Meeting "that hereafter all 
queries sent to Annual Meeting for decision, shall in all 
cases be decided according to the Scriptures, where there 
is anything direct ('Thus saith the Lord,') applying to 
the question. And all questions to which there is no di- 
rect expressed Scripture applying, shall be decided ac- 
cording to the spirit and meaning of the Scripture. And 
that decision shall be mandatory to all the churches hav- 



UNIFICATION 181 

ing such cases as the decision covers. And all who shall 
not so heed and observe it, shall be held as not hearing the 
Church, and shall be dealt with accordingly."* The next 
year this was modified by the declaration that this "de- 
cision shall not be so construed as to prevent the An- 
nual Meeting from giving advice when it deems it proper 
to do so, and that given as advice, shall be so entered up- 
on the Minutes, ' 't Thus, the theory of the authority of 
Annual Meeting had developed. At first its decisions 
were advice only. By 1882 its decisions were advice 
only when such was plainly stated in the minutes, all other 
decisions were "mandatory." The steps in that develop- 
ment were taken between 1865 and 1882. That was the 
period of rapid social development in the country at large 
and also of the rapid socialization of the Dunker church 
along other lines. 

Even as constituted in Zinzendorf 's Synods, the com- 
mittee of control, out of which grew the Standing Com- 
mittee in the Dunker church, was a device of no mean 
power. It had absolute control over what should come 
before the Synod. As it developed in the Dunker frater- 
nity it became, in effect, the church. Step by step it 
evolved into an engine of tremendous power. At first, a 
means whereby trivial and local questions might be kept 
out of the meeting, a device for the saving of time, it be- 
came in the course of the history an instrument by which 
free discussion was stifled and the will of a small minori- 
ty was impressed upon local churches all oyer the Broth- 
erhood, even in cases when every member in that congre- 
gation rebelled against its procedure. This was possible 
because of its powers in two capacities — its right, to con- 
trol queries, and its right to appoint committees to local 
churches. 

*"Classified Minutes"', p 31. (Italics theirs). 

^Classified Minutes," p 31. 



182 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

The organization of the Standing Committee was out- 
lined in 1866. According to that plan it was to be com- 
posed of ordained elders, chosen by the elders of the 
church where the Meeting was held, three from each of 
the States, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, In- 
diana and Illinois, and two from each of the other states 
in which there were Dunker churches, except that when- 
ever any state had ten bishops within it, it should be en- 
titled to three members of the Committee. This plan 
was modified in 1868 by a decision that the members of 
the Standing Committee should be elected by the District 
Meetings, one elder from each district.* 

Its officers, to be chosen by itself, were a moderator, 
a writing clerk, a reading clerk and a doorkeeper with 
duties appropriate to each. It was provided that the 
moderator of the Standing Committee should be the pre- 
siding officer of the Meeting. Two years later it 
was decided that the officers, except moderator, might be 
chosen from the members of the Annual Meeting who 
were not members of the Standing Committee. In 1880 
it was decided that the Moderator also need not be chosen 
from the members of the Standing Committee. In 1871 
there were protests against the assumption of authority 
by the Standing Committee and a recommendation was 
made that there be a frequent change in Moderators and 
clerks. In 1885 the Meeting decided "that no brother 
shall be allowed to serve with the Standing Committee as 
Moderator or Clerk more than twice in four years. " Thus, 
gradually the organization of the Standing Committee 
was perfected. 

The primary purpose of the Standing Committee origi- 
nally was to serve as a committee of general arrangement 
for the Annual Meeting. The duties naturally fell into 

*"Classified Minutes", p 14, 39. 



UNIFICATION 183 

two classes, the consideration of what queries should be 
presented to Annual Meeting and the arrangement of the 
place of meeting. In the course of time the two classes 
of duties were divorced and, while those relating to the 
matters to be presented to the Meeting were left in the 
hands of the Standing Committee, the other class was 
given into the hands of what came to be called the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements, appointed by the local church 
where the meeting was held. 

Perhaps as important as the duty of acting as a com- 
mittee to consider queries beforehand and determine 
what should come before Annual Meeting was the duty 
of appointing committees to settle troubles in local 
churches. In case there was trouble in a congregation 
it early became the practice to ask help from either the 
elders living in an adjoining church, or of the Annual Meet- 
ing. The former was the earlier practice. As early as 
1791 advice was given by visiting brethren to the Ger- 
man town church, but it was not a committee sent from 
Annual Meeting.* The earliest committee known to 
have been sent to settle trouble in a local church was in 
1849. t The Standing Committee had the appointment of 
such committees. Gradually the practice of settling 
trouble in a congregation by a committee from Annual 
Meeting almost superseded the earlier method of calling 
in adjoining elders. % After the organization of District 
Meetings a local church could apply for a committee 
from the District instead of one from Annual Meeting. 

^Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 504. Brumbaugh gives the 
reader the impression that this was a committee asked of Annual Meeting 
by the Germantown church. According to the record quoted it was rather 
a general meeting, perhaps the Annual Meeting for that year. On p 491 
Brumbaugh seems to incline to that opinion himself. 

f lt Classified Minutes", p 388. 

{"Classified Minutes", p 41-45. 



184 THE DUNKEBS IN AMERICA 

However, the authority of the committees sent by the 
latter had been advanced to such a degree by 1876 that a 
request was granted by Annual Meeting that the power 
of such committees be limited, u so as not to allow them 
to expel a majority of any church, unless their decision 
is ratified by the Annual Meeting in open session".* 
The climax of this development was reached during the 
troublous days of 1880-1882. After that the liberaliza- 
tion of the committee system, as also of the whole organ- 
ization, began. 

Thus did the Dunker church develop in organization 
and ideals, as it grew in numbers and as the United 
States increased in population and social integration. It 
had become practically socialized by 1880, with the 
exception of the last step in the process, liberalization, 
which is to be noticed in the next chapter. The ultimate 
cause of this process will be noticed after the de- 
velopment has been traced to its completion. 

The hiatus in Dunker history between the close of the 
Revolutionary War and 1850 has often been noticed. 
The Dunker church went out into the wilderness at the 
beginning of that period, and shared in the development 
of the great Central Plain. She began to come to self- 
consciousness about 1835 and from that time on to 1882 
worked ceaselessly at the task of unifying her organic 
structure, her practices and her beliefs. When in 1880 
the Old Order Brethren withdrew and in 1882 the Pro- 
gressive Brethren were expelled, the task was complete. 
It was unification by heroic methods, but it had the great 
merit of being effective. Another and greater task then 
awaited her. 

*"Classified Minutes", p 48. 



CHAPTER V. 



Liberalization of the Dunkers. 

The yearning of the Dunkers for unity was expressed 
most clearly in the "mandatory" decision of the Annual 
Meeting of 1882. While the passion for homogeneity and 
the consequent .expulsion of "Progressives" continued at 
high tension for some time, it was not long before the 
Annual Meeting elders had either cowed into submission 
or expelled the troublesome element and homogeneity be- 
came relatively perfect. This had two results: it enabled 
the Church to devote its energies to the acquisition of 
members; and, as there was now a greater social homo- 
geneity, there began the growth of greater liberty, both 
personal and associational, in social mind and social 
organization. 

Great as was the increase of the Dunker population from 
1790, when there was not more than 1462 members in 
America, to 1881-2, when there were 57,749, th*e increase 
from the latter date to the present was even more 
startling.* In 1890, the total number of Dunkers in the 
four bodies was 73,795, a gain of almost 28 per cent for 
the the nine years, f On Jan. 5, 1905, according to Dr. 
Carroll, there were 114,194, a gain in 25 years of more 
than 97.7 per cent. J 

It has often been a matter of surprise that such rapid 
increase in membership should have immediately follow- 
ed a period of strife and heart-breaking such as was nev- 
er known before in tne history of the denomination. 

*Howard Miller, ''Record of the Faithful", p 66. At last after diligent 
searoh and some advertising this first official census of the Dunkers came 
into my hands and I am able to give statistics of the Dunkers just at the 
turning point of their recent and most striking history. 

fU. S. Census, 1890 

X" Christian Advocate", New York City. 



186 THE D UNEERS IN AMERICA 

When one looks at the matter, however, from the sociol- 
ogical point of view, he can easily understand it. Com- 
ing down from the period following the expansion were 
three main classes in the Dunker population. 

There was the class composed of those that had been 
most isolated from the influences of an advancing civiliza- 
tion, who, by nature conservative, had not been touched 
by the social influences that were remaking society in the 
United States, and who stood like a rock against all 
changes from the old ways of their fathers. These were 
what came to be called the Old Order Brethren. Their 
stronghold numerically was in the Miami Valley of Ohio, 
although in almost every Dunker congregation in 1880 
there were more or less of such. 

Then there was the class at the other extreme, com- 
posed of members who had been most influenced by the 
extra-Dunker society. For the most part these were 
those who, naturally progressive, had lived in towns or 
cities, or in communities that were up-to-date socially. 
They had been affected by the social influences of a rapid- 
ly developing civilization. Many of them in their youth 
had attended the public schools in towns near their homes, 
had access to the newspapers, had acquired a taste for lit- 
erature, and had learned that there were good people out- 
side the Dunker church. In short, they were those who 
had been affected so far by the civilization about them 
that the Dunker ideas and customs that had no "thus 
saith the Lord" to support them had no standing in their 
estimation. Seeing the advantage of education to indi- 
viduals and the church, they were in favor of higher 
schools and colleges. Realizing the benefits that the oth- 
er churches were getting out of Sunday schools, prayer 
meetings and revival meetings, they advocated these in- 
stitutions. Appreciating the necessity of having some 



LIBERALIZATION 187 

organ for the discussion of questions of interest to the 
denomination and the dissemination of new ideas, they 
started the church papers. Believing that the only way 
for the church to succeed in the changing conditions of 
social life was to adapt the church in non-essentials to the 
age in which they lived, they advocated the adoption of 
modern methods of church work, modern ideas and cus- 
toms. Their party was known as the Progressives. 

Between these two classes, more numerous by far than 
both of the others together, was the third class, the Con- 
servatives, as they were called. This party was com- 
posed of those that had been influenced by the environing 
society more than the Old Order Brethren, but less than 
the Progressives, and felt that time would bring about 
all the changes that were necessary. They were less 
logical than either of the other parties, and therefore 
could the more easily compromise. At first they favored 
keeping the church intact at almost any price, but, as the 
Progressives became more aggressive and radical, and 
as the men in control of the Annual Meeting were more 
favorable to the Old Order Brethren than to the Progres- 
sives, the Annual Meeting finally decided that the 
latter must get out, in order to save the Old Order 
Brethren to the church and for the sake of the dignity of 
the Annual Meeting. 

The result of the trouble was that the Old Order Breth- 
ren withdrew, and the Progressives were expelled by 
thousands. Many thought that these ruptures in the 
Church would destroy it, and were surprised when all 
three branches prospered as never before. One has but 
to read the church papers of that day to realize the dark 
apprehensions that filled the mind of almost every writer 
on both sides.* 

*Just one example will suffice. In 1881-1882 Howard Miller, one of the 
keenest-minded men in the Conservative party, wrote, "It is therefore safe 



188 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

How is the growth to be explained? By the circum- 
stance that this segregation of unlike elements in the 
Dunker church increased the homogeneity of each party, 
developed consciousness of kind very completely, precipi- 
tated conflict between the three parties and developed zeal 
in a corresponding degree. On the other hand the dis- 
appearance of the causes of friction in each body stopped 
the controversy, and gave each time to devote its ener- 
gies to the building up of its membership. This increas- 
ing social homogeneity gave rise to greatly increased 
activity and, consequently, to a vast increase in numbers. 

Another result of the segregation of the different so- 
cial elements in the Dunker church was the liberty con- 
sequent on the social homogeneity in the conservative 
and progressive parties. Liberty of thought, custom 
and organization is possible only when the population has 
become socially homogeneous. As we saw in the pre- 
vious chapter, it was the efforts of a predominant, ho- 
mogeneous party to reduce the heterogeneity of the mem- 
bership that led to the policy of coercion, against which 
the Progressives revolted. Therefore when the unlike 
social elements separated, policies of liberalization be- 
came possible in the progressive and conservative part- 
ies, because of the change that took place in the mode of 
likemindedness. Reverence for tradition had been char- 
acteristic of their type of mind. It now became more 
liberal. How this change in the type of mind took place 
must now be explained. Generally a change in the social 
mind is effected in two ways in the period following the 
time of consolidation in any society ; (1) by the freeing 
of energies from the tasks of welding the society into a 

to estimate the strength of the Brethren in the United States as above, 
and for many years to come, at our present rate of growth; 'between' 55,- 
000 and '60,000' will be a truthful statement of our strength."— "Record 
of the Faithful", p 87. Yet, in 1890, they had 73,795. 



LIBERALIZATION 189 

political unity by conflict and the devotion of those ener- 
gies to the criticism of current thought, policy, customs, 
and organization of the society, and (2) by the physical 
and psychical plasticity consequent on the amalgamation 
of different social elements. Following the Civil War 
the social mind of the people of the United States was so 
changed and became more liberal. 

Only indirectly, however, was the social mind of the 
smaller social unit, the Dunker church, affected by the 
broadening- influences that the soldiers brought back with 
them from that war, for the Dunkers were a peace people 
and did not participate in the struggle. Nevertheless, 
an occasional Bunker's son had gone to the front. Per- 
haps, after his return he joined the Church and married, 
possibly, a Dunker girl. More frequently a non-Dunker 
who had been a soldier, did the same thing. In these 
ways the Dunkers were touched to a certain extent by 
the same influences that worked the change in the social 
mind of the integral society. For the most part, however, 
such change in the social mind of the Dunkers as was 
due to the Civil War can be traced to the impression of 
the ideals of the society about them upon the Dunkers, 
and the imitation by the latter of the environing society. 

More important than this indirect influence was the 
condition within the Dunker church itself that made pos- 
sible such a change. After the middle of the century, 
and especially after the close of the Civil War, certain of 
the Dunkers found themselves released from the more 
serious part of the burdens incident to building homes 
and clearing farms in the wilderness. Their energies 
and money were freed for the purposes of culture. They 
could now afford to devote time and money to the educa- 
tion of their children and could take a greater interest in 



190 THE DUNKER 8 IN AMERICA 

the affairs of the world, as these affairs were to be known 
through the medium of books and newspapers. Further- 
more, these conditions also allowed time and energy to be 
devoted to the examination and criticism of the ideas, 
customs, policies and organization of the Dunker church 
itself by its members. Very significant is the fact that 
the first Dunker newspaper since Sauer's "Geistliche 
Magazin" was a small monthy that originated at Poland, 
Ohio, in 1851. And still more significant was the fact 
that thirteen years later the "Christian Family Compan- 
ion' ', a weekly, edited and published by Henry R. Hol- 
singer, found a large number of readers in the Dunker 
church, for it was avowedly progressive in its tendencies, 
and devoted much space to the criticism of the Church.* 
The fact that it leaped into popularity so quickly shows 
that Dunkers were in the mood to criticise their church. 
This freedom from the demands of home-making not 
only freed Dunker energy to be devoted to criticism of 
the church, but it also permitted their children to have a 
broader experience and culture. Their homes were built, 
their farms were bringing them comfortable returns, 
there was a great increase of social advantages for their 
children in the rapidly growing towns about them. 
Schools were growing up rapidly and, since there was 
not now a need for all the children on the farm, some 
of them, generally the younger ones, were sent to school 
at the nearby town. This circumstance made the social 
mind of such more plastic. After imitating the culture 
of the extra-Dunker society, such a child went back home 
carrying the broader outlook obtained in the town, thus 
affecting in some measure the social mind of the family to 

*See especially Holsinger, "History of the Tunkers, etc.", p 470 f. As he 
was the leader of the Progressives and the advocate of most of the changes 
that took place the importance of his book for this period cannot be exag- 
gerated. Cf. Howard Miller, "Record of the Faithful", p 89 f. 



LIBERALIZATION 191 

which such a youth belonged, and having a most potent in- 
fluence on the social mind of the next generation.* 

Therefore, when these young men began to advocate 
their views through such papers as the "Christian 
Family Companion", and the "Progressive Christian", 
the latter paper started in Berlin, Penna., by Holsinger 
and Beer in 1878, a process of conflict began within the 
church. Two tendencies were pitted against each other: 
the tendency towards consolidation and uniformity, 
backed by the likemindedness of the great majority of 
the church, and the tendency towards liberalization and 
progress, supported by the small but aggressive party 

*That such was the process by which the social mind of the Dunkers was 
liberalized is shown by the case of Henry R. Holsinger, to whom more than 
to any other man in the Dunker fraternity is due the credit of bringing 
about the liberal epoch in that church. His father was a better educated 
man than most of the Dunker preachers of that day. "He was about the 
only English-speaking Tunker in the community". — Holsinger, "History 
of the Tunkers, etc.", p 340. He was a lover of poetry and "could recite 
page after page from many of the poets''. Holsinger testifies that while 
he never succeeded in getting more than a common school education, he 
himself always had a deep yearning for an education. Brought up in such 
a family that desire was but natural. He was not afraid of Sunday schools, 
and from the very first his type of mind was rational rather than dogmatic. 
In his early manhood he served a year's apprenticeship in the printing 
office of the "Gospel Visitor", the first Dunker paper in the nineteenth 
century, and by travel and reading became more than ever convinced that 
there were mauy things in the Dunker church that must be changed. He 
felt the influence of the thought of the world about him, and saw the con- 
trast between the Dunker preachers, ideas, culture, customs and organiza- 
tion and those of the other churches of the country. He felt the influence 
of the new social era that had dawned upon the United States and endeav- 
ored to impress what he felt upon the Dunker church. 

Holsinger 's case is typical, for in the Dunker church there were many 
young men who had duplicated his experience by imitating the broader 
culture of the growing American social life. Much the same broadening 
influences had surrounded Henry Kurtz, the founder of the first modern 
Dunker paper .—Holsinger, "History of the Tunkers, etc.", p 3-8, 339 f, 350 f, 
354, 470 f . 



192 THE D TINKERS IN AMERICA 

composed of men that had been affected by the more 
rational social mind of American society. 

The final sifting, however, did not occur until the 
the divisions were made in 1880-1882. Then a pro- 
cess of social selection began. The ultra-conservatives 
in the Dunker church either modified their views or 
went with the Old Order Brethren. The extreme pro- 
gressives, in like manner, went out with Holsinger 
and the Progressives, This process continued for years, 
until gradually the more progressive members were to be 
found in the Brethren church, as the progressives called 
themselves, the ultra-conservatives in the Old Order 
Brethren church, while the moderates of both tendencies 
remained with the moderately conservative party known 
officially as the German Baptist Brethren. 

The effect of the cessation of strife and the social ho- 
mogeneity, consequent upon this social selection, was 
marked on the social mind of each of the parties. At 
once, all incentives to progress were inhibited in the case 
of the Old Order Brethren. They were so homogeneous 
that liberalization was impossible. 

Among the Progressives, there was sufficient hetero- 
geneity to insure the continuance of the development of 
the social mind, while there was also a tendency to 
become less radical than it seemed at first they might 
become. . 

The Conservatives, on the other hand, retained a large 
number of members progressively inclined, who at once 
began to criticise and reconstruct the Dunker church, 
which tendency was furthered by the necessity of so 
liberalizing the church as to prevent more of the pro- 
gressively inclined from going over to the Progressives. 

On the last two parties it had the effect of freeing 
energies, long wasted in controversy, for purposes of crit- 



LIBERALIZATION 193 

Lcism, reconstruction and aggressive measures for in- 
creasing the membership. Thus, it reacted upon the 
social population and gave the Dunker church, especially 
in the two largest branches, the great increase in 
membership noted above. 

Finally, this social selection reacted also upon the in- 
dividuals composing the membership of each party. The 
conservative became more liberal and that insured that the 
members of the middle party should become constantly 
more progressive, because progress is possible only 
when there is social heterogeneity that is of such degree 
that it is constantly becoming more homogeneous.* Both 
the Progressives and Conservatives, the latter only 
slightly less than the former, now learned to value ration- 
al more than formal likemindedness. 

In the period when society is becoming unified, meas- 
ures of coercion are necessary. One of the first things, 
however, that a society whose membership has become 
homogeneous and whose social mind has become rational 
rather than formal has to do is to liberalize its organiza- 
tion. With the change described above in the type of 
likemindedness of the Dunker church there went this 
change in the organization. In the period previous to 
1882 the power of the organization had rested practically 
in the hands of the StandiDg Committee, although theo- 
retically in the Annual Meeting, not in the membership 
of the church in the congregations. There was no appeal 
to right and legality as a higher law than the law of 
the Scriptures as interpreted by the traditions of the 
fathers. In the present period, however, the conceptions 
of a law that was higher than the tradition began to ap- 
pear. The conception of legality began to arise. This 
conception originated in the minds of the Progressives 

*Giddings, "Democracy and Empire", p. 53. 



194 THE D TINKERS IN AMERICA 

and their sympathizers among the Conservatives in the 
struggle of 1882, when Henry R. Holsinger was expelled 
from the church by the Annual Meeting.* Thus, in both 
branches a conception of a law above the will of the ma- 
jority, arose in the minds of many of the Dunkers. After 
their separation this idea continued to develop. 

Immediately on the organization of the Progressives 
they provided that their organization should have a 
care for the safe-guarding of the rights of the individ- 
ual against the arbitrary power of the few, and thus 
gave expression to their regard for a legality and justice 
that is above the traditions of the church, f 

Among the Conservatives the progress towards legal- 
ity has been slower, but it has been none the less .real. 
The Annual Meeting has never given expression to this 
conception in any decision, but in practice it has admitted 
it, ever since shortly after the organization of the Pro- 
gressives as a separate body. To have continued the 
former arbitrary and coercive policy would have driven 
thousands of their members into the progressive branch 
of the church. 

That the date 1882 is only approximately correct as the 
dividing point between the period of centralization and 
the period of liberalization in the Dunker church is indi- 
cated by nothing so clearly as by the growth, within the 
church, of voluntary associations, such as colleges, news- 
papers, missionary societies and old folks' homes. These 
voluntary organizations had begun with the rise of the 
first newspaper, the "Gospel Visitor," which was author- 
ises remarks of D. C. Moomaw, Laridon West, Robert H. Miller, etc., 
Holsinger, "History of the Timkers", p 515-525. 

fSee "Declaration of Principles", in Holsinger, "History of theTunkers, 
etc.", p 530 f. 



LIBERALIZATION 195 

ized by the Annual Meeting in 1851.* Between that time 
and 1882 no less than 14 papers, devoted to the discussion 
of church or Sunday school questions, and representing 
different tendencies in the fraternity, arose in the Dunker 
church, f 

Moreover, at the time of the division in the Dunker or- 
ganization in 1882, there had been organized four colleges, 
one each in Virginia, Pennsylvania. Ohio and Illinois. 
The Huntington Normal College at Huntington, Penna., 
started in 1876, was the first of these, although there had 
been several abortive attempts made to organize Dunker 
schools, the first by Jacob Miller in 1852 in Pennsyl- 
vania.:): Thus, the liberal era in the Dunker church really 
began about 1850, but did not become dominant in the 
church until after 1882. From that time on the social 
constitution of the Dunker church, in both its leading 
branches, became more complex. Organizations of all 
kinds multiplied. Among the Conservatives, since that 
time at least four more colleges have been started, two 
more periodicals have been begun, while the publishing 
interests of that branch have become so prosperous that 
each year there is about $10,000 in profits to be devoted 
to the missionary work of that church. 

Before that date, the Dunker church had a small mis- 
sion in Denmark, but city and foreign mission work in 

^"Considered, at this Council, that we will not forbid Bro. Henry Kurtz 
to go on with the paper for one year; and that all the brethren or churches 
will impartially examine the Gospel Visitor, and if found wrong or injur- 
ious, let them send in their objections at the next Annual Meeting." In 
1853 is found the last reference to this paper, as follows: "In regard to the 
fourth query of last year's minutes, concerning the Gospel Visitor? Inas- 
much as the Visitor is a private undertaking of its editor, we unanimously 
conclude that this Meeting should not any further interfere with it." — "Clas- 
sified Minutes", p 323, 324. 

tAll were published in English, except a small one in German. 

tHolsinger, "History of the Tunkers, etc.,' ! p 365. 



196 THE D UNKEUS IN AMERICA 

general was frowned upon. Following the division in 
1882, the General Missionary and Tract Committee, was 
organized. This does successful work in a number of 
large cities, has missions in India, Switzerland, Sweden, 
Denmark and France. Since then has originated the Ed- 
ucational, Sunday School and Missionar}^ Meetings held 
in connection with the Annual Meeting. 

Subsequent to the division of the Dunker church oc- 
curred the great development in the social constitution 
of the local congregation. The organization of Sunday 
schools began previous to that time but by far the greater 
number have been organized since. Young peoples' so- 
cieties and ladies' aid societies have originated since 1882, 
as well as local mission bands. Thus, the social consti- 
tution of the Conservative branch of the Dunker church 
has been subsequent, and also consequent, to the liberal- 
ization of the social mind of the Dunkers. As apprecia- 
tion of the value of variety in their society grew, the 
social constitution developed.* 

The danger of losing members by their going to the 
Progressives, forced the Conservatives, shortly after the 
division of the church in 1882, to stop short in their co- 
ercion of the individual in the interest of uniformity and 
to allow him more liberty of action. As the coercion had 
been limited almost entirely to securing uniformity in 
matters described by the phrase "the order of the 
church", which pertained largely to dress and customs, 
naturally the liberty allowed was on this point. Individ- 
ual initiative henceforth was allowed a greater place. 

The whole church was so affected by this change in the 
social mind that entirely new policies were adopted. 

Instead of meeting with suspicion those who tried to 
introduce a wider culture and warning them that they 

*Giddings, "Indiactive Sociology", p 224. 



LIBERALIZATION 197 

were departing from the ways of the fathers, the church 
authorities and the moulders of thought encouraged 
them. Perhaps, the most striking policy that was now 
inaugurated was that of encouraging a wider intercourse 
with the world, to which they had so long been strangers. 
One of their foremost men, D. L. Miller, made several 
journeys around the world visiting the places of interest 
and writing of them in the denominational paper, the 
Gospel Messenger. The articles were published later in 
book form. That the church as a whole was animated by 
a new spirit is shown by the fact that his articles were 
the most popular of any in the paper and that his books 
enjoyed, and still enjoy, a phenomenal sale. 

Another result of this new phase of the social mind 
was the fact that the schools of the church were not only 
encouraged, but were thronged with Dunker students. 
Educationally, the Dunker church's horizon was not 
bounded by its own schools. The graduates of these were 
encouraged to seek the best universities of this country 
and Europe. The increase of books and magazines in 
Dunker homes and the demands by Dunker congregations 
in many places, especially in the cities, for educated 
preachers bore witness to the rapid change that had come 
over the policies of the Dunker church. While it never 
has avowed a policy to extend its intercourse with the 
world about it and to be in favor of free investigation, 
the Dunker church has practically adopted the policy of 
world-wide intercourse. Consequently modern means of 
communication, such as the rural mail delivery, the 
daily newspaper, the telephone and the illustrated and 
scientific magazine, have been eagerly adopted by most of 
the Dunker people.* The fact that one of the most en- 

*In 1905 the Annual Meeting of the Old Order Brethren, the ultra-con- 
servative party, decided against telephones. 



198 THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

lightened Bunkers, Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh, of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, could criticise the Dunker 
church in his "History of the Brethren 1 ', in 1899, and yet 
enjoy the confidence of the church and that his books 
sold among the Dunkers by the thousands shows that the 
policy of harking back to tradition has given place to 
that of free investigation.* 

Lastly, a policy of legality has displaced to a certain 
extent the policy of arbitrary exercise of power in the 
conduct of the Annual Meeting, and in the conduct of 
trials of members in most congregations. 

The liberalization of the Dunker church, however, is 
not yet complete. As the process began before the di- 
vision in 1882, so the policy of coercion did not cease al- 
together at that date. These periods overlap each other. 
While, on the whole, liberal policies, and rational senti- 
ments dominate the Dunker church today, all the respect 
for tradition and all coercion upon the individual has not 
ceased. But the Dunker church has achieved a social 
organization that maintains essential unity and is stronger 
than it ever was, while, at the same time, it allows a 
greater measure of individual and social liberty than 
ever before. Those are the marks of a progressive 
and liberal society. 

Furthermore, in the Dunker church have appeared the 
beginnings of the third stage of social evolution, socioc- 
racy, by which is meant the stage in the development of 
a constituent society which corresponds to democracy in 
an integral society. 

This was brought about by the same causes in both 
cases. The liberal stage gave rise to individual initiative 
and allowed the Dunkers to adopt the best methods of or- 
ganization, the best inventions both in their church work 

*"History of the Brethren", p 505 f. 526, 539, 543, 546 f. 



LIBERALIZATION 199 

and in their homes and business. That gave rise to in- 
crease of the Danker wealth and also Dunker population. 
The liberalization of the Dunker organization, the broad- 
ening of the Dunker mind with the consequent modifica- 
tion of Dunker customs, thought and policies, resulted 
in a great increase in the membership apart from natural 
growth. It made possible a successful appeal to people 
that had not been raised Dunker s and this led to com- 
plexity of the Dunker membership. This process is still 
going on. 

Social selection is at work on the Dunker population, 
determining the physical and psychical classes and thus 
preparing for a further development of the social mind. 
The Dunker church has not reached the stage of social 
development represented by American society as a whole, 
but under the influence both of the environing society 
and also of causes operating within itself, it is rapidly 
evolving toward such a stage. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Present Conditions in the Dunker Church. 

1. Numbers. 

In. 1770 there were fifteen congregations of Dunker s in 
Pennsylvania, with a membership of 663, one in New 
Jersey with 46 members, a total of 709 members in six- 
teen congregations. If the seventeen churches in Mary- 
land and the other southern colonies had as high an aver- 
age membership as these, which is hardly likely, since 
they were newer congregations, than in 1790 there were 
not more than 1462 members in the territory now 
included in the United States.* 

It would be interesting to know the number of Dun- 
kers in different parts of the country during the period 
between the Revolutionary War and 1880, but there was 
no census of the Dunker s, until 1880, when Howard 
Miller was appointed to prepare one. His results to- 
gether with all other available information is gathered to- 
gether in the following table. It shows the entire Dunker 
population in 1880 and 1890, the numbers and distribution 
of the Progressives in 1905, and gives an indication of 
the distribution of the Conservatives in that year. 

Numbers and geographical Distribution of the Dunker 
Population in the United States : 

States United States Howard Miller's fProgressives, Conserva- 
Census of 1890 Census of 1880 in "Statistical Re- tives, 

"Record of the port", 1905, by Number of 

Faithful", p 64. Mrs. A. H. Lichty Gospel Mes- 
sengers tak- 
en in April, 
1905.1 

Alabama 20 

Alaska 

*Morgan Edwards, "Materials towards a History of the Baptists in Jer- 
sey", p 385 f . 
fCanada has 12 members. The Report is unpublished. 
J See, Gospel Messenger, April 29, 1905. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 201 

Arizona 20 

Arkansas, 82, 20, 64 

California, 290, 211, 310, 387 

Colorado, 127, 80, 182 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

District of 

Columbia...., 88, 67 

Forida 41, 19 

Georgia 2 

Idaho, 40, • 201 

Illinois, 4,119, 4,407, 686, 1,532 

Indiana, 12,350, 10,237, 3,275, 3,148 

Indian Territory, 27, 27 

Iowa, 3,470, 3,056, 841, 1,221 

Kansas, 4,067, 2,358, 615, 1,459 

Kentucky, 13, '. . 5 

Louisiana, 17, 41 

Maine 1 

Maryland, 2,964, 2,604, 550, 843 

Massachusetts 1 

Michigan, 844, 659, 220, 326 

Minnesota, 104, 129, 160 

Mississippi 4 

Missouri, 2,090, 1,309, 12, 653 

Montana 16 

Nebraska, 1,441, 620, 439, 444 

Nevada ] 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey, 191, 302, 101, 24 

New Mexico 1 

New York 43 

North Carolina, 525, 28», 96 

North Dakota 9, 411 

Ohio, 11,798, 9,362 2,443, 2,814 

Oklahoma, 46, 29© 

Oregon, 280, 200, 191 

Pennsylvania, 16,707, 14,557, 3,357, 4,058 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina 12 

South Dakota, 102, 8 

Tennessee, 1,249, 1,088, 12, 212 



202 THE D UNKEBS IN AMERICA 

Texas, 95, 12, 96 

Utah 2 

Vermont 1 

Virginia, 7,244, 4,965, 880, 1819 

Washington, 26, 97, 185 

West Virginia, 3,216, 1,587, 180, 473 

Wisconsin, 199, 71 

Wyoming, 21, 4 

Total 73,795, 59,749, 14,117, 

Dr. Carroll, in his "Statistics of the Churches" pub- 
lished in the Christian Advocate, January 5, 1905 presents 
the following table: 

Dunkards Ministers Churches Communicants 

1. Conservatives, 2,775 900 95,000 

2. Old Order, 213 75 4,000 

3. Progressives 265 144 15,000 

4. Seventh Day 

(German) 5 6 194 

Total 3,258 1,125 114,194 

This summary is a relatively close estimate based upon 
reports sent in by the Conservatives. It throws no light 
on the distribution of the Dunkers. It is valuable only 
for the light it throws upon the relative strength of the 
four branches. 

In 1890 there was a total membership in the four 
branches of 73,795 in 989 organizations. Compared with 
the estimate of their numbers a century before, this 
shows a rapid increase of membership. It also shows 
that, whereas the average size of a congregation in 1780 
was 44 1 members, in 1890 the average was 74 f . In 1905, 
according to Dr. Carroll's figures, the average congrega- 
tion had increased to 101 i members. 

A glance over the combined table given above shows 
where growth has been vigorous. The states in which 
were the greatest numbers of Dunkers in 1890 were 
Pennsylvania, 16,707; Indiana, 12,350; Ohio, 11,798; Vir- 



PRESENT CONDITIONS SOS 

ginia, 7,244; Illinois, 4,119; Kansas, 4,067; Iowa, 3,470. 
Perhaps the most striking thing that the table shows is 
the remarkable increase since 1880. The phenomena of 
of this period in the history of the Dunker church cor- 
responds with the phenomena that are found in the his- 
tory of nations in the period of civilization that follows 
the development from the military-religious stage into 
the liberal-legal.* In both cases the period is marked by 
a great increase in population and a very pronounced 
development in culture and organization. 

2. The Social Mind of the Dunker 8. 

To the stimulus of economic opportunity and of politi- 
cal and religious freedom in America, the Dunkers re- 
sponded in much the same way as their German fellows 
of like faith, the Mennonites. Likewise, the newer por- 
tions of America at a later time presented the economic 
opportunities that drew the Dunkers thither very early 
and in great numbers. Today the Dunkers are like their 
ancestors in their ready response to the stimulus of eco- 
nomic advantages. They are practical men, farmers for 
the most part, ever alive to their business interests, and 
quick to seize any new opportunity offered. 

Among themselves mental and practiced resemblance 
is very highly developed. 

Their appreciation is keen in all matters that pertain 
to agriculture, and less keen in affairs that do not touch 
their immediate interests. Thus, in agriculture and 
stock raising they are alive to the greatest discoveries. 
They buy the best and most improved machinery, take 
the latest and best farm papers, and attend the county 
and state fairs in order to keep abreast with all that is 
best in the world in which they are concerned. In mat- 
ters of education and science, they are content with 

*Giddings, "Elements of Sociology", p 290 f. 



20 If THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

theories that have been outgrown for almost a century. 
Within the last ten years, however, there has begun a 
veritable renaissance among them. Many of their young 
men have been seized with a great passion for education, 
new theories of the universe have been finding adherents 
among them. A new world has been opened up to them 
through such men as D. L. Miller with his books on 
travel, and M. G. Brumbaugh with his modern theories 
of education. Their appreciation of the great world in 
which they live has been cultivated by their contact with 
the other social elements in a society that has gradually 
been growing more cultured and liberal. Travel, schools, 
good books, periodicals and all the influences of modern 
American civilization have destroyed in a measure their 
isolation, widened their experience, and developed their 
appreciation.* 

As farmers and business men the Dunkers have ever 
been what are termed practical men. That mode of 
practical activity known as utilization has been very 
highly developed. They possess the skill of thirty Hve 
generations of practice in farming. Their patient persis- 
tence, combined with skill and frugality, conquered the 
wilderness, wherever they settled, and has earned them 
the reputation of being the best farmers in the world, f 
Among the Dunker farmers, there is less poverty than 
among the members of any other denominations of Christ- 
ians, unless it be among the Mennonites, themselves 
German farmers. 

Moreover, in their religion they have been nothing, if 
not practical. Their religion has to do with ecclesiastical 
policies and personal ethics, not with theology. Pietism 

*Cf. the discussions in the Gospel Messenger in 1885, for example, with 
those in the same paper in 1905. 

fKuhns, "German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania", p 85. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 205 

has ever been practical activity rather than dogmatics. 
The Dunkers in this particular are true to their pietistic 
origin. 

The Dunker type of disposition should probably be 
called domineering. This type of disposition reveals 
itself in the reverence that is required to be paid to the 
older members, to the governing officials of the congrega- 
tion, and to any authority whatsoever, either in church 
or state, which does not oppress them in matters of 
conscience. The old man, the wealthy man, the success- 
ful man has always been reverenced among them. When 
once the church has spoken in the Annual Meeting, it 
becomes the duty of every member to render obedience 
to the decision. When a local congregation has expressed 
its mind on a matter, it is in bad taste, to say the least, 
for anyone to question the result. This disposition has 
played a large part in the history of the denomination. 
It made possible the imposition of the policy of coercion 
upon so large a part of the Dunker body for so long a 
time. It determined the sort of leaders that the Dunker 
church has produced, — men of the domineering type, 
who ruled by coercion rather than by their superior 
mental and moral qualities.* 

Deeply religious, the Dunkers are not of the rationally 
conscientious, but rather of the austere, type of charac- 
ter. All their history has been a protest against the evils 
they saw in the great churches about them. They have 

*See Holsinger, "History of the Tunkers, etc.'", p 473 f. The principle 
set forth in Matthew 18:17, "And if he (a brother in the church, who has 
wronged you) will not hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen 
man and a publican", has been the controlling principle in the thought of 
the Dunker church, as to how a man should be "dealt with" after the high- 
est authority has spoken. That that is the last word, and that its use is 
very frequent is shown by a glance over the pages of the minutes of the 
Annual Meeting. The phrase, "let him be dealt with according to Matthew 
18:17" occurs so often that it becomes wearisome. 



206 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

always been opposed to worldly forms of amusement, and 
have considered themselves a reforming party in Pro- 
testant Christianity. They opposed slavery, and have 
taken advanced ground on intemperance and the use of 
tobacco.* All the Minutes of the Annual Meeting on 
practical piety show the austere type of character. In 
the Dunkers today we find the same persistence and the 
same faithfulness to what they conceive to be duty 
as characterized their forbears of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Among new and hostile surroundings, but protect- 
ed by social isolation, they have clung to their beliefs, in 
spite of the sneers of other Christian denominations - 

*These examples from the minutes of their Annual Meeting, cast an in- 
teresting light upon their attitude: 

"Art. 2, 1781. — Concerning distilleries, we heartily counsel all brethren, 
who have distilleries, that they should by all means endeavor to put them 
away, in order to escape from the evil so often arising from them, and to 
avoid offence, and in this the brethren are still entirely united with the 
conclusion made at Pipe Creek, three years ago." 

"Art. 12, 1895. — We the brethren of Beaver Creek congregation, petition 
Annual Meeting through District Meeting of Western Maryland, to say 
what shall be done in case a brother is appointed to act as gauger, or store- 
keeper at a distillery, and has been requested to resign, but refuses to re- 
linquish his office? Ans. — If the brother refuses to resign, he shall be dealt 
with according to Matt. 18:17. See Eph. 5:11 and 1 Thess. 5:22." These 
are only two of a number of decisions relating to the liquor traffic from 1778, 
the Minutes of which year is the earliest we possess, down to the present 
time. 

Their position on tobacco is well indicated by the following decision of 
the Annual Meeting: 

"Art. 1, 1817. — Concerning the use of tobacco, it was in union considered, 
that if a member should be contaminated with it, such should be admonished 
to quit it; and if he would not be told, such a member could not be elected to 
any office in the church." 

"Art. 7, 1896.— (Salem Church, Southern District of Ohio). We petition 
Annual Meeting through District Meeting, to reconsider Art. 10 of Minutes 
of Annual Meeting of 1889, and so amend, that no delegate to Annual Meet- 
ing or to District Meeting, or member of the Standing Committee, be ac- 
cepted as such, who uses, raises, buys or sells tobacco. Ans. — We grant 
petition asked for."— "Classified Minutes," p 284, 285, 297; "Kevised Min- 
utes," p 158 f, 163 f. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 207 

In type of mind the Dunkers are dogmatic-emotional. 
They have held themselves so strictly to their ideas, and 
have been so earnest with their convictions that they have 
been intolerant of others. This has gone to such lengths 
that many of them believe that theirs is the only true 
church of Christ. This is not often asserted in so bold 
a fashion, and directly- confronted with the question, they 
generally hedge.* They are driven to that position by 
the logic of their beliefs. With them, reasoning in mat- 
ers religious, has been habitually deductive. 

This type of mind, in connection with their austere 
type of character has produced martyrs among them. As 
a single example, Christopher Sauer, the Germantown 
printer, allowed himself to be despoiled of all his prop- 
erty, which was considerable for that day, and to be dub- 
bed a traitor to the country, because he could not take 
the oath of allegiance to the new state of Pennsylvania, 
at the close of the Revolutionary War.t It was not be- 
cause he was opposed to the state, or because he was a 

*This attitude has been characteristic of them from the very first. Thus, 
when Gruber put the question squarely to Mack in Germany in the first 
years of the history of the sect, "How shall we know, beyond all doubt, 
that your new denomination, above all others, is to be recognized as the 
true church?", Mack answered, "We have no new denomination and no 
new ordinances, but simply desire to live in the old church which Christ 
established through the virtue of his own blood, and obey the command- 
ment which was from the beginning-; and it is not our desire to appear be- 
fore men as the only established church of Christ; but we do anxiously de- 
sire to show forth undaunted godliness by the grace and power of Christ, as 
it was in Christ himself and in the church at Jerusalem. And, if we can 
succeed in setting forth the institutions of Christ and of the original church 
in a godly life and by holy conversations, and in keeping his ordinances, it 
appears to us that that should be sufficient to show to all men that we are 
the true church of Christ, But whosoever cannot recognize Christ in the 
holiness of his commandments would not be able to recognize the church of 
Christ, even if the twelve apostles were among them. — Holsinger, "History 
of the Tunkers, etc.", p 70; Cf. "Classified Minutes", passim. 

tSee "Colonial Records", Index, "Christopher Sauer." 



208 THE D UNKER8 IN AMERICA 

Tory at heart, but because he was conscientiously opposed 
to taking an oath. It is this type of mind, with its ac- 
companying disposition and character, that has had much 
to do in bringing this eighteenth century sect of Chris- 
tians down into the twentieth century, not enfeebled, 
like the Quakers, but strong and vigorous, and, so far as 
one can see, with a future before them. 

Before they left Germany, consciousness of kind among 
the Dunkers had become a strong affection for 
those of experiences and sentiments like their own. 
Their common sufferings and their organization prompted 
its further development. In Germantown the pro- 
cess was repeated. Their history in America has 
further developed their consciousness of kind. Today, 
having acted from common purposes so long under a 
closely unified organization, consciousness of kind is 
more highly developed than among any other religious 
body of which I know. It extends even to economic 
affairs. In any Dunker community it always pays the 
merchant to secure some Dunker to clerk in his store, 
in order to draw Dunker trade. It extends even to the 
various bodies of the Dunker bod}^ There is more of 
the consciousness of kind among the various kinds of 
Dunkers than there is among Dunkers and non-Dunkers, 
of whatsoever race or religion. To be known as a mem- 
ber of any branch of the Dunker church is of great ad- 
vantage today to merchants that desire Dunker trade. 
There is a large mail-order house, for example, in one of 
our large cities that gets most of the mail-order business 
of the' Dunkers, simply because some of the proprietors 
are Dunkers. Moreover, any project in which Dunkers 
are interested, or which they recommend, is sure to 
secure the patronage of the Dunkers. Such enterprises 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 209 

as farm colonies, investment companies, mines and man- 
ufacturing concerns are examples. 

Through the control of so strong a consciousness of 
kind, and through the moulding influences both of sim- 
ilar physical and social stimuli, and of intimate acquaint- 
ance and association, continued for so long a period, the 
Dunkers have learned to will the same things and to act 
together. 

Nothing can illustrate the Danker type of mind so well 
as a survey of the present state of culture among them, 
and the doctrines that are binding upon them today. 

Education, 

For many years after their arrival in this country the 
Dunkers cared little about education. The Germantown 
congregation were in a degree an exception, and it ap- 
pears that Christopher Sauer and his son, Christopher, 
Jr., made the exception. The elder Sauer was a univer- 
sity man in Germany, a graduate of Marburg.* It is 
true that Mack and Beissel were interested in literary 
work of the religious sort, but they were self-taught and 
only by accommodation of language could they be called 
educated men. It is true that in their time the common 
people of Germany had a wider access to the sources of 
knowledge than they had before the Reformation. Fur- 
thermore, the sectarianism of their age made necessary 
a kind of education in dialectics and church history, but 
like most of the information that a man "picks up", it 
was not an ordered knowledge. Moreover, the quicken- 
ing of the intellectual life, characteristic of the post- 
Reformation period was not shared by the Dunkers to a 
very great degree. Mack and Hochmann, together with 
others, had edited the Berleberg Bible. Sauer set up in 
1738, the first printing press in America to print in Ger- 

*Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren", p 345. 



210 THE D TINKERS IN AMERICA 

man, and thereby created opportunity for the develop- 
ment of literary activity of a sort amongst the Dunkers 
of Germ an town. He himself wrote the copy for most of 
his publications. Alexander Mack, Jr., was a famous 
hymn writer, as well as the author of many polemical 
works in defence of Dunker doctrines. Beissel and many 
of his fellow members at Ephrata wrote German hymns, 
besides other kinds of religious literature, and about 
1745 they had established a press. Yet it cannot be said 
that the early Dunkers favored education. 

To Christopher Sauer, Jr., however, belongs the honor, 
so far as the Dunkers are concerned, of promoting high 
schools in the early days. In 1759 he helped to raise 
money for the building of the Germantown Academy, and 
was one of its trustees for many years. He was twice 
chosen president of the board. His father was opposed 
to an educated ministry.* 

Beissel' s Community took steps to provide instruction 
for the young of the vicinity at a time when no schools 
existed in that part of the wilderness. The "Chronicon 
Ephratense" says that many families in Philadelphia and 
other colonial cities sent their children to Ephrata to be ed- 
ucated. In 1748 Ludwig Hoecker, who, after the revival at 
Germantown had left the Germantown Dunkers and joined 
Beissel's Community, started a Sabbath school, with a 
purpose similar to that which later on moved Robert 
Raikes in England to open a Sunday school, the purpose 
being to instruct the young in the elementary branches 
of learning. This school was continued until the battle 
of Brandy wine, in the Revolutionary War, when the room 
was taken for hospital services. It was never opened 
afterwards. Peter Miller, the successor of Beissel at 
Ephrata, was a university man from Germany, and the 

"Brumbaugh, loc. cit., p 251, 411; Sauer's "Almanacs", passim. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 211 

most learned man in the Province in his time. He gave 
impetus to the religious-literary activity at Ephrata. 
Nevertheless, when the story of this activit}^ is all told, 
all is told about education in the Dunker church for al- 
most a hundred years. The emphasis of general opinion 
among the Dunkers was all on the foolishness of human 
learning.** 

Holsinger tells us that already in 1850 the movement 
had been started by a few friends of education in the 
church. It gained momentum through the following 
years, in the manner already described in Chapter V, in 
spite of the adverse decisions of the Annual meeting. 
Today there are within the Dunker church at least seven 
schools and colleges of a higher order than the public 
grammer schools, besides the one in the progressive 
branch, t 

^"Classified Minutes", p 299-301.— Here is the first decision to be found 
among the published Minutes of the Annual Meeting on the subject of ed- 
ucation. It is from the year 1831: "Whether it was considered advisable 
for a member to have his son educated in a college? Considered not advis- 
able, inasmuch as experience has taught that such very seldom will come 
back afterwards to the humble ways of the Lord". Here is one in refer- 
ence to high schools, from the year 1852: "How is it considered by breth- 
ren, if brethren aid and assist in building great houses for high schools, 
and send their children to s the same? Considered that brethren should be 
very cautious and not mind high things but condescend to men of low es- 
tate. Rom. 12:15". 

Finally, one from 1857: "What are the views of the present Annual 
Council in regard to the contemplated school, that was alluded to some 
time since in the Gospel Visitor? Ans. — It is conforming to the world. 
The Apostle Paul says: 'Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth"'. 

tThese seven are as follows: Huntington Normal School, Huntington, 
Penn., 1875, now Juniata College; MoPherson College, McPherson, Kans., 
1877; Ashland College, Ashland, Ohio, 1878, which is now owned by the 
Progressives; Mt. Morris College, Mt. Morris, 111., 1879; Bridgewater Col- 
lege, Bridgewater, Va., 1830; Lordsburg College, Lordsburg, Calif., 1891; 
Plattsburg College, Plattsburg, Mo. , 1897; North Manchester College, North 
Manchester, Ind., 1895. 



212 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

The men that favored colleges a generation ago were 
those who, from 1870 on, gave the denomination much 
trouble by their stand on the question of dress and on 
the nature of the decisions of the Annual Meeting. 
After the crisis was passed in 1882, when the Old Order 
Brethren and the Progressives left the church, the Con- 
servatives did nothing further towards buying or build- 
ing new colleges until 1891. By that time the church 
had finished her reorganization, made necessary by the 
struggle through which she had gone, and from that 
time to the present the educational movement in general 
has been gaining much headway among the Dimker peo- 
ple. The movement is one indication of the change that 
is slowly but surely taking place in the type of mind 
among the Dunkers. 

Throwing an interesting side light upon the Dunker 
type of mind is the fact that from Christopher Sauer, Jr. 
and Alexander Mack, Jr., to the end of the nineteenth 
century, the Dunker church did not produce one man of 
commanding genius, or one that contributed in any re- 
markable way to the thought or welfare of the nation. 
Good men she produced in great numbers, but of men 
with breadth of vision, of national, to say nothing of 
world-wide sympathy, or, of far-seeing constructive 
ability, there is no sign, until the times of men now liv- 
ing. But within the last twenty-five years, men of con- 
siderable promise have appeared among them. Two of 
the most prominent among these are D. L. Miller, author 
and traveler, to whose wise foresight and splendid devo- 
tion is due much of the success of the church in the last 
quarter of a century, and M. G. Brumbaugh, Professor 
of Pedagogy in the University of Pennsylvania, who is 
prominent in educational circles in Pennsylvania. These 
two are modern men in the best sense of the term. There 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 213 

are an increasing number among the Dunkers that have 
had the advantages of the best university education in 
this country and a few that have taken degrees in Europe. 

The progressive branch has been occupied with the 
work of reorganizing congregations, of paying the debts 
on her college and " publishing house, and of building 
churches and supplying the congregations with preachers 
during this time. It has not yet had time to show what 
it may be capable of in the production of great men. 
Nevertheless, the attitude of the Progressives towards 
education has ever been friendly. The type of mind 
found among them is much more liberal. 

Of the whole Dunker movement, truth compels one to 
say that it has brought forth no great literary men, and 
no statesman. No great poet, or philosopher, or educa- 
tor was born or bred among the Dunkers during the first 
one hundred and fifty years of their history. But the 
Dunkers have produced a great mediocre class of sub- 
stantial, worldly-wise, industrious, economical, peaceful, 
moral and religious citizens, possessed of more than the 
common virtues, and with few vices. They have built 
up, in a new land, worthy communities that feared God, 
were strictly honest, very hospitable, and have set an 
example of upright and strong manhood and womenhood. 

The Dunker attitude towards education from 1790 to 
1850, was due in part to oppostion they encountered from 
those that were educated ; in part, to their frontier life 
and partly to the influence of tradition hostile to educa- 
tion. Having arrived in America, the Dunkers were con- 
firmed in their narrowest beliefs and their dogmatic tra- 
ditionalism by the isolation of their wilderness life. 

However, as the wilderness began to blossom and set- 
tlements to grow together, as towns sprang up, knowl- 
edge spread ; as school houses began to dot the hills, as 



2U THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

the printing press brought to Dunker homes a part of the 
pulsing thought of the great world about them, introduc- 
ing, at first, into their methods of farming reason instead 
of tradition;* as travel to and from the old home in the 
East gave contact with other men and other thoughts, 
upon some there began to dawn a recognition of certain 
elements of superiority in those whom they had been 
taught to consider as "the world". These carried back 
the light into the less open regions, and an ideal of ration- 
al science as opposed to dogmatic tradition, an ideal of 
liberty as contrasted with the ideal of <unity, began to 
make its appeal. Then began the conflict of ideals that 
resulted in the ruptures of 1880-1882. After the break, 
familiarity with differences led to toleration, and among 
both the Conservatives and Progressives, toleration to 
liberty. 

The Dunker Doctrines. 

Perhaps even more striking illustrations of the Dunker 
type of mind than their attitude towards education, are 
their positions on theological and ecclesiastical questions. 

In the earliest period, as we have seen, most of the 
Dunker doctrines were copies, or modifications, of those 
that were current among the sects of Europe. Their ten- 
ets today are the same as then, except as they have 
been affected by new circumstances. 

In the strictly theological meaning of the term the 
Dunkers today, as in the early period of their history, 
have no doctrines. The decisions of the Annual Meet- 
ing, the only official pronouncements on any matter what- 
soever, are not concerned with theological questions, but 

*For example, uutil the modern era among them, the crops were planted, 
and all the work of the farms was governed by superstitious signs that had 
been handed down to them from their ancestors, instead of by the princi- 
ples of scientific farming. But today they are the most scientific farmers 
in the world. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 215 

with conduct, organization and questions of ecclesiastical 
policy. The Dunkers have not declared themselves on 
the doctrine of God, of Man, of Sin, and of Redemption. 
Nothing could bring this out more clearly than to glance 
over a list of the subjects on which the Annual Meeting 
has rendered decisions.* In looking over such a list in 
the Index of the Revised Minutes the reader notices 

*The following list from the Index of the "Revised Minutes of the An- 
nual Meeting," which are supposed to be in force among them today reveals 
the type of mind that still controls the Dunkers: 

"Accusations against elders; Acting as administrators of estates; Adul- 
terers; Affirmation, objectionable forms of; Ancient order of the church, 
violation of; Animal shows, attending; Anointing (the sick with oil); Arb- 
itrations, serving at; Ardent spirits; Arms, bearing; Assesssor, serving as; 
Attorney, hiring one; Authors, playing; Avoidance; Banking, brethren 
engaging in; Banks, acting as directors of; Beard, style of wearing; Bells 
on meeting houses; Buying county bonds; Bonnets for sisters; Costly bur- 
ial cases; Cape for sisters; Playing cards; Sunday school celebrations; 
Playing checkers; Holding office under the civil government; Clothing, 
plain and fashionable; Coat collar, standing; Public collections (in the 
church); Serving as constable; Petitioning Congress; Gospel Conversion 
necessary; Distilleries; Divorce:! parsons; Dress; Getting drunk; Wearing 
earrings at lovef easts; Excommunication; Fairs; Fasting; Order of faith 
and repentence; Following worldly fashion; Using fiddles; Fines for mili- 
tary service; Freemasons; Playing games; Delegates (to Annual Meeting) 
wearing gold; The Gospel a perfect law; Attitude to the government; 
Ways of wearing the hair; Wea.ring modest hats; Hunting on Sunday; 
Life Insurance; Illegal interest; Selling intoxicants condemned; Jewelry ; 
Serving oa Juries; Law-suit; Going to law; Laying on of hands in baptism; 
Lightning rods; Having likenesses (pictures) taken; The Lord's day; Buy- 
ing lottery tickets; Attending lyceums; Marriage; Military service; Mort- 
gages; Music and musical instruments; Mustache; The New Testament 
our rule; Neckties; Non-conformity (to the world); Oaths; Civil office; 
Organs in meeting houses; Paintings in houses; Plays at parties; Pianos; 
Plain dressing; The Prayer Covering; Salaried ministry; Schools; Secret 
societies; Sleighbells; Speculation; Sunday schools; Tobacco; Erecting 
tombstones; Uniformity in dress; Vain conversation; Universal redemption; 
Going to war; Young Men's Christian Association." 

These are only a part of the subjects which are given in the Index and 
on which the Annual Meeting has given decisions binding on the members 
of the Dunker church. In almost every instance, where the question is one 
that related to conduct, the decisien is negative in its nature. 



816 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

that there are just four theological subjects, — the order 
of faith and repentance, the Gospel a perfect law, univer- 
sal redemption and the annihilation of the wicked- The 
whole trend of these decisions is that of a protest against 
practices that are held to be wicked. The chief reasons 
given for the positions are that such practices violate 
Scripture or some tradition that has been handed down, 
not that they are unreasonable, or evil in their effects. 

Even more striking are a few quotations from the 
"Minutes" themselves. This one on the doctrine of the 
Scriptures is in point. "Art. 5, 1872. — Is the Gospel a 
perfect law to govern the church in all things necessary 
to salvation? Ans. — It is." Apologetic necessities have 
led the Dunkers to assert that the Bible is a divinely in- 
spired book and that obedience is the test of love and faith. 

This legalistic conception of the nature of Christianity 
has determined the nature of almost ail the decisions of 
the Annual Meeting. Life is duty. The Gospel is a law 
of duty. How to obey this law, as well as just what this 
law is in its essence, has been the crux of all their 
troubles. 

Here are examples of their deductive reasoning: "Art. 
19, 1876. — Is it right, according to the Gospel, for a 
brother to plead the laws of the land, and act as an attor- 
ney V Ans. — The Brethren have always considered it 
not according to the Gospel for a brother to practive law 
and act as an attorney, and we can make no change in 
this respect". 

"Art. 7, 1869,— Can a brother, consistently with the 
Gospel, take the benefit of the law by getting up a peti- 
tion to locate a ditch according to law, and thus compel 
others bo ditch? Ans. — We consider it most in accor- 
dance with the Gospel, and the general principles of the 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 211 

Brotherhood not to use the law to compel men to do any- 
thing". 

u Art. 6, 1844. — Whether it be allowable for brethren to 
collect debts by force of law. It was again considered 
that no brother has any right, in the Gospel, to sue at 
law. Lu. 3:14; Mt. 5:38; etc., 6:12". 

"Art. 3, 1821. — How far Brethren have the liberty to 
commune with men who do not strictly adhere to the truth 
was considered in council thus: That it is very danger- 
ous to commune with such people as do not hold entirely 
to the doctrine of Christ, since the Apostle says, 'If there 
come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive 
him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed' (2 
John 10); and the counsel is, to give them no liberty to 
speak in our meetings". 

"Art. 4, 1845. — In regard to usury and increase, it was 
considered, that as it was against the law of Moses, and 
could not be otherwise than against the Gospel of Christ, 
which commands us 'to lend where we hope for nothing 
again', we should be very careful not to ask or take more 
than lawful interest, and keep an open hand for the poor, 
and to lend them even without interest". 

These decisions are supposed to be in force among the 
Dunkers at the present time. It is a fact, however, that 
many of the decisions that stand in the "Revised Min- 
utes" are chiefly effective in the country districts and 
small towns. In the larger cities and some country dis- 
tricts, where the isolation of the Dunkers is giving way 
to an unhindered communication with the other social 
elements, there is a tendency to allow some of the more 
stringent rulings to become obsolete. Moreover, the 
Dunker church has invented a way of rendering some of 
the regulations that make people conspicuous in public, 
less obnoxious to the rank and file of the membership. 



218 THE D UNKEB8 IN AMEBIC A 

Th@ plan is to have such regulations apply only to the 
official members of the church. 

Hence, on the whole the Dunker church today is some- 
what further advanced in the development of the social 
mind than the Minutes of the Annual Meeting would 
suggest. The dogmatic type of mind reached its climax 
among them about 1880. Since that time their type of 
mind has gradually grown more critically intellectual. An 
evidence of this is the fact that the decisions of the An- 
nual Meeting since about that time have gradually be- 
come less concerned about questions of casuistry, and 
have rather been directed towards completing the organ- 
ization, and adapting it to the changed conditions of a 
new era in their history.* 

*The present type of mind prevailing among the Dunkers is indicated 
better, perhaps, by a small circular sent out by the Gospel Messenger, the 
official publication of the church. It is as follows: 

"It most earnestly pleads for a return to the apostolic order of worship 
and practice. 

It holds that the Bible is a divinely-inspired book, and recognizes the 
New Testament as the only infallible rule of faith and practice for the peo- 
ple of God. 

It also holds to the doctrine of the Trinity; teaches future rewards and 
punishment, and emphasizes the importance of a pure, holy and upright 
life before God and man . 

It maintains that only those who remain faithful until death have the 
promise of eternal life; 

That Faith, Repentance and Baptism are conditions of pardon, and hence 
for the remission of sins; 

That Trine Immersion or dipping the candidate three times face-forward 
is Christian Baptism; 

That Feet-Washing, as taught in John 13, is a divine command to be ob- 
served in the church; 

That the Lord's Supper is a meal, and, in connection with the Commun- 
ion, should be taken in the evening, or after the close of the day; 

That the Salutation of the Holy Kiss, or Kiss of Charity, is binding upon 
the followers of Christ; 

That War and Retaliation are contrary to the spirit and self-denying 
principles of the religion of Jesus Christ; 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 219 

The Progressives have no official statement of their 
doctrines. In the beginning of their organization they 
differed from the Conservatives only on matters relating 
to dress, ways of wearing the hair and beard, and as to 
the church's power to pronounce authoritatively on ques- 
tions that are not definitely settled by the Scriptures. 
They held that where the Scriptures do not plainly teach 
a certain doctrine, or custom, the church has no author- 
ity to say what a member must do. The Progressives 
were expelled because they refused to be obedient to the 
church. They held that one should obey the church only 
when the church has Gospel grounds for its positions, 
instead of the traditions of the Fathers, backed by the 
authority of the Annual Meeting.* Only to a minor de- 
gree was the progressive movement a revolt against 
the dogmatic type of mind.f 

That a Nonconformity to the world in daily walk, dress, customs and con- 
versation is essential to true holiness and Christian piety. 

It maintains that in public worship, or religious exercises, Christians 
should appear as directed in 1 Cor. 11: 4, 5. 

It also advocates the Scriptural duty of Anointing the sick with oil in 
the name of the Lord. 

In short, it is a vindicator of all that Christ and the apostles have en- 
joined upon us, and aims, amid the conflicting theories and discords of 
modern Christendom, to point out ground that all must concede to be in- 
fallibly safe." 

*See "Declaration of Principles, " of the Progressives, inHolsinger, "His- 
tory of the Tunkers, etc." p 530. 

fTheir present positions are given in a small tract that is sent out by 
their Publication Board at Ashland, Ohio as follows: 

"In doctrine the Brethren seek unity in essentials and charity in all 
things, Phil. 3:13-16. 

They baptize repentant, (Acts 2:38,) believers, (Mk. 16:16,) by tri-une im- 
mersion according to the commission, (Matt. 28:19; Rom. 6:3, 4; Gal. 3:27,) 
and confirm them by the laying on of hands, (Heb. 6:2; Acts 19:6,) the sym- 
bols of receiving the Spirit, (1 John 2:27.) 

They keep the communion service, called the love-feast, (Jude 12,) with 
feet- washing, the symbol of cleansing, (John 13:1-17,) the supper teaching 



220 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

In theological matters, like the Conservatives, the 
Progressives have all shades of ©pinion. They are very 
tolerant in such matters, as they have never been a 
theological church. The Dunkers of all branches, true 
to their origin, in German Pietism, have always been 
marked by their emphasis on piety rather than ortho- 
doxy. The latter is a word that is rarely found in the 
Dunker vocabulary. 

The theological doctrines held by the Progressives, as 
by the Conservatives, are the result of tradition, not of 
reason. Thus, even these doctrines show the same gen- 
eral type of mind which characterizes the Conservatives. 
The only difference is that the Progressives have proba- 
bly a few more men that are thinking for themselves 
along theological lines than the Conservatives. But in 
general the two branches are characterized by the same 
general type of mind, the emotional-dogmatic, with a grow- 
ing tendency to become critically-intellectual, and with 
a corresponding tendency towards change in type of 
character. The Progressives are only slightly in advance 
of the Conservatives in these matters, at the present 
day, owing to the rapid changes that have been going on 
among the latter since the division in 1880-1882. 

3. The Social Organization of the Bunkers. 

The origin and development of the social organization 
has already been traced. A brief sketch of the present 
state of the organization is all that is necessary here. 

brotherly love and equity, (1 Cor. 11:17-30,) the eucharistic emblems, (Luke 
22:19, 20,) and kiss of love, (Rom. 16:16.) They anoint the sick with oil, (Jas. 
5:12.) They are opposed to war, (Isa. 2:4; II Cor. 10:4; Jas. 4:1, 2,) to oaths, 
(Matt. 6:34; Jas. 5:12;) to Brethren going- to law with Brethren, (I Cor. 6:5 
8,) to divorce, (Matt. 5:32; 19:9,) and to all forms of worldliness (John 17:15.) 
The Brethren consider it their mission to give to the world an example 
of loving and complete obedience to Christ and his Gospel, (John 8:31; Rom. 
6:17.) They believe in primitive doctrine, purity and power." 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 221 

The social composition of the Dunkers has been de- 
termined by their type of aggregation and has reacted 
upon it. They have always been a prolific people. From 
their large families, to a great extent, they have recruit- 
ed the membership of the church. The Dunker family 
is still the primary source of their membership. However, 
as they become like the environing society in mind, and 
as the society about them, in turn, becomes affected with 
their ideas and customs by imitation, more and more the 
social composition becomes more complex. This process 
is now going on in most parts of the Dunker church. It 
is going on most rapidly in the progressive branch. 

In their early history, marriage out of the church was 
punishable by expulsion.* It is still frowned upon, but 
the process of liberalization now in progress, has modified 
the attitude of the church. In some congregations fam- 
ilies intermarry generation after generation. The degree 
of kinship is not so close that any evil results appear in 
the offspring, but four or five families may intermarry 
for a long time without being closely related. For 
example, I know of three families in a congregation in 
which the women did not change their names, when they 
were married; yet they and their husbands were only 
very distant relatives. 

Occasionally, however, a Dunker marries out of the 
congregation. When this happens, it usually follows 
that the non-Dunker sooner or later joins the Dunker 
church. The strong social life of the Dunker family and 
community is so attractive that people who come in con- 
tact with them are often brought into the church, and thus 
new blood is introduced. For example, in the early days 
in Pennsylvania, the German Dunkers and the Scotch 
Irish immigrants mingled in the same regions, and in 

*"Chronicon Ephratense ", p 96, 249 f. 



m THE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

many instances, the charms of the Dunker girls were too 
much for the Presbyterian principles of the Irish 
young men. Usually these men joined the Dunker 
church. This resulted in many Irish and Scotch names 
being found among the Dunkers, and in the strange phe- 
nomenon of an Irishman speaking Pennsylvania Dutch 
as fluently as any German. This process has been re- 
peating itself since, wherever Dunker communities are 
found. 

In this complexity of social composition of the Dunker 
membership in certain parts of the country lies a partial 
explanation of the coercive policy- that has been found 
necessary in their social organization, and the later lib- 
eralization of mind and organization. While they have 
always been largely a homogeneous body, there has al- 
ways been just enough of heterogeneity both of ethnic 
elements and of ideas and social customs to compel the 
leaders to formulate a policy of unification. It also com- 
pelled the formulation of distinctive methods of cooper- 
ation, while at the same time, it has developed the traits 
of hospitality, frugality and social helpfulness so 
characteristic of Dunker history. 

The Dunkers are a voluntary, cultural, religious asso- 
ciation. Their constitution is based formally upon a like- 
ness of belief, but ultimately upon a wider and more in- 
clusive basis, — the consciousness of« likeness, which in- 
cludes, not only beliefs, but also like sympathies in re- 
gard to matters, aesthetic, political and economic. Their 
present social organization is simply a development of 
the single congregation, adapted to the larger problems 
produced by their diffusion. Except that the number of 
constituent societies in the church has greatly increased, 
the present organization does not differ from the de- 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 223 

scription given in Chapter IV, for it was at that time 
that the final steps were taken. 

Of the two lesser bodies of Dunkers the smallest is 
that known as the Seventh Day Baptists, which originated 
with Beissel, as narrated in Chapter I of Part II. The 
communities of this branch are gradually dying out. 
Their social oaganization has never been perfected, the 
congregations still being without organic connection. 

The next larger body is the Old Order Brethren. This 
also is decreasing in numbers year by year. Its social 
organization, however, is but partially developed, as it 
broke away from the main body in 1880 and has under- 
gone no further change. It represents the extremely con- 
servative wing of the church on matters of non-conformi- 
ty to the world. It is the reactionary party of modern 
times among the Dunkers, as BeissePs party was the re- 
actionary party of the earlier days. The Old Order Breth- 
ren have hoped to stem the tide of development that they 
felt was carrying the church away from the ideals and 
practices of the days of isolation. They represent the 
element that refused to be socialized either by the pro- 
gressive element in the church, or by the larger social 
environment outside. They have an Annual Meeting, 
and publish a paper at Brookville, Ohio. 

The social organization of the Progressives differs from 
that of the Conservatives only upon the matters upon 
which the grievances arose at the time of the division. 
Three points only represent the differences between the 
organization of the two: (1) the general Conference of the 
Progressives is a body of delegates from the congre- 
gations of the denomination, although occasionally a 
district, too far from the place of meeting for its congre- 
gations to be represented, sends a delegate as a repre- 
sentative at large ; (2) the Conference has no Standing 



m TEE DUNKERS IN AMERICA 

Committee. It has an Executive Committee, which has 
charge of the program for the Conference. This differs 
from the Standing Committee in that it does not decide 
what matters of business shall come before the Confer- 
ence, nor does it appoint committees to execute the de- 
cisions of Conference: (3) the decisions of the General 
Conference are not "mandatory"; it is a body solely for 
conference, and for the management of the various in- 
stitutions of the church. 

The social constitution of the Progressives is quite 
highly developed. It owns its own publishing house, at 
Ashland, Ohio, and its college and seminary, which are 
located at the same place. It has its organized General 
and Foreign Mission Boards, its young people's and its 
women's societies. Its local congregations are 'also 
made up of several constituent societies for the division 
of social labor of the congregation. 

Thus, in both of the leading branches of the Dunker 
church there is a developed organization. The spirit 
of these organizations is slowly becoming more liberal, 
the idea that the individual exists for the church is grad- 
ually being displaced by the conception that the church 
exists for the welfare of the individual. The policy of 
coercion is gradually giving way to the policy of liberal- 
ism. The ease with which constituent societies are or- 
ganized in the two branches of the Dunker church at 
large and in the local congregations is increasing con- 
stantly. Ever more dominant is becoming the idea that 
the only reason for the existence of the church is its abil- 
ity and pur pose to contribute to the welfare of men; first, 
by contributing to the welfare of the individual member 
of the denomination; secondly, by contributing to the 
welfare of society at large by the kind of men it is able 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 225 

to make of its members and send out into the larger so- 
ciety, the nation and the world. 

Starting with eight members in 1708, the D linkers, 
Conservatives and Progressives, today number more 
than one hundred thousand members. They are just be- 
ginning their career as missionizers. Hitherto they have 
developed largely by pushing out from their centres of 
population to the contiguous parts, and mainly by genetic 
aggregation. Today they are planting missions in the 
great cities of America, and in foreign lands. 

Their social mind has undergone a very great change 
in the last twenty five years, resulting in changes in their 
doctrines and practices. Gradually they are dropping 
the peculiarities that interfere with the complete ex- 
pression of their main purpose of making people "good." 
Education has been accepted by them, and is no 
longer frowned upon as " worldly". Their religion as an 
ethical force will produce men, let us hope, who, dropping 
the narrowness of the old views, forsaking the isolation 
of the past, and taking on the polish, the culture, the 
wideness of vision and the aggressiveness of the great 
world which they have shunned so long, will be of social 
value in the world into which they go. The church has 
shut the riches of the "world" out from itself too long, 
and it has withheld from the world the virile forces of 
its own forceful, rugged moral life. If the Dunker can 
adopt the best that the "world" has to give him, and yet 
keep the solid strength, and the deep moral earnestness 
of his past history, his individual personality will be none 
the poorer, and society at large will be much the richer. 
His great contribution to the social life, of which his 
church is but a part, is yet to be made. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Conclusion. 

Of the psychological conception of society there are 
four types: — the "social-contract" theory, the "impres- 
sion" theory of Le Bon and Durkheim, the "imitation" 
theory of the late Gabriel Tarde, and the modified "in- 
stinct" theory of Professor F. H. Giddings. 

The ' 'social-contract' ' theory describes the last step in 
the organization of the Dunker church. When the orig- 
inal eight members had gone that far in the matter, they 
"consented together to enter into a covenant of a good 
conscience with God".* There were, however, a number 
of previous steps for which this theory does not account. 
It does not explain, for instance, why only these eight 
persons saw the advantages to be gained from association 
and were thus led, according to this theory, to form an 
association, or society. 

The "impression" theory plays a very small part, if 
any, in the history of the Dunker s in this period. They 
were always the small party and the mass had but little 
influence in the decision of anyone to unite with them. 
It might explain why some people did not unite with 
them, but that is not the side of the matter that requires 
explanation in interpreting the origin and history of the 
Dunkers. 

For the imitation theory more can be said. In the first 
two chapters attention was called to the fact that some of 
the events in the origin and development of the Dunkers 
might be explained by the historical influence of other 
sects. However, two things are to be noticed in this 
connection, (1) that this theory of historical dependence, 

*"A Plain View, etc." p ix. 



conclusion m 

or of imitation, does not account for all the events and 
doctrines, and (2) that this theory does not answer the 
further question as to why the historical precedent had 
an influence. It is a fact that many such precedents had 
no influence on Mack. For example, many of the rites 
and doctrines of the orthodox churches and of the sects 
had no influence upon the Dunkers. Some other theory 
than that of imitation must be invoked to explain these 
facts. It is not denied, however, that imitation has 
played a very important part in the history of the Dun- 
ker people, but imitation is not the fundamental principle 
explaining the movement. It leaves unanswered the 
questions as to why one precedent and not another is 
imitated, and why imitation begins. 

The inadequacy of the other theories to account for 
the Dunker history, leaves us the modified "instinct" 
theory of Professor Giddings. Its starting point is that 
the mental activity that produces society is the response 
of sensitive matter to a stimulus. In the like response 
of people to the same given stimulus we find the origin 
of all concerted activity, and in the unlike and unequal 
response is the origin of the processes of differentiation, 
which in their relations to the concerted activity give 
rise to the complex phenomena of organized society.* 
This theory has the advantage that it answers the ques- 
tions left unanswered by the others. There is contract, 
conflict and imitation in every society, but the reason 
these processes exist is because in the ceaseless equilib- 
ration of energy- between bodies unequally charged with 
energy some respond in a similar mannner, to the stimuli 
of their environment, while others respond in an unlike 
manner. With this fundamental formula, this theory 

*See Giddings, "Concepts and Methods of Sociology", American Journal 
of Sociology, Vol. X, No. 2, Sept. 1904, p 164 f. 



228 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

proceeds to explain under what conditions of environment 
like response is possible, and under what conditions im- 
possible. The significant feature is the relation of the 
physical environment to the composition of the population. 
That is to say, the character of the physical environment 
determines whether the population of a country shall be 
homogeneous or not, while the character of the population 
determines its type of mind, character and disposition, its 
ideals, its ability to unite in concerted action and its social 
organization.* It is recognized in this theory that the re- 
sponse of individuals that gives us a society is a response 
to two kinds of stimuli, — (1) the stimuli of the material en- 
vironment, and (2) the stimuli of the historical environment. 
The latter are of the greatest importance in their direct 
action upon the formation and history of a society. This 
theory we have tried, in this paper, to apply to the his- 
ory of the Dunkers. 

This theory explains the origin of the Dunkers. In 
Part I it was shown that Dunker doctrines, customs and 
organization originated in a country whose physical char- 
acteristics were such that different kinds of people settled 
within its borders, which physical characteristics, how- 
ever, retarded the natural processes of socialization. The 
nature of the country was such that it attracted immi- 
grants because of its economic opportunities, and its nat- 
ural position as a highway over which people naturally 
traveled, while its social advantages were such as to at- 
tract the separatists persecuted in other parts of Europe. 
This made the demotic composition very complex, and 
furnished the conditions necessary for social development. 
The composite nature of the population determined the 
rise of a consciousness of unlikeness between the differ- 

*©iddings, "A Theory of Social Causation", Publications of the Amer- 
ican Economic Association, Third Series, vol. V, No. 2. 



CONCLUSION 229 

ing elements, and set up the processes of socialization 
known as conflict, toleration and imitation. The further 
development of consciousness of likeness within the nar- 
row confines of Wittgenstein resulted in the emergence 
of ideals, of doctrines, customs and organization. The 
origin of the Dunker movement, therefore, is to be ex- 
plained by the generalization that the environment deter- 
mined the social composition, while upon the social com- 
position depended the consciousness of kind that led to 
the social development. 

The consciousness of kind, therefore, is the fundament- 
al social fact that explains why the Dunker s imitated cer- 
tain historical precedents and neglected others. Con- 
sciousness of likeness to the primitive Christians caused 
the Dunkers to go back to the New Testament, as inter- 
preted by the primitive church, for their models of life, 
doctrine, custom and organization, when their conscious- 
ness of unlikeness to the people composing the member- 
ship of the state churches had caused the necessity of 
having a different life, doctrines, customs and organiza- 
tion to be felt by them. In every case, where they imi- 
tated historical precedents, they did so, because they felt 
that they were more like those whom they imitated than 
like those whom they refused to imitate. This, then, is 
our explanation of the sequence of events that led up to 
the origin of the Dunkers. Why did the Dunkers origi- 
nate at all? Because certain elements in the community, 
conscious of a general likeness to the Pietists felt also 
their unlikeness to the latter on the point of the necess- 
ity of separation from the state churches, and of discipline 
to make separation possible. Why did they feel this un- 
likeness? Because the social composition of the Pietistic 
groups as a whole lacked perfect homogeneity, and this, 
because in their evolution they had inherited different 



&80 THE D TINKERS, IN AMEBIC A 

tendencies, and had been subjected to slightly different 
environmental conditions. They had lived in different 
districts, read different books, had occupied unlike posi- 
tions in life, and had had unlike experiences. 

After the Dunker ideals had once arisen and had got 
themselves incarnated in the persons of the first eight 
members, a new social stimulus had come into existence 
for those about them that were not yet members of their 
organization. This was a secondary stimulus, an ideal. 
To it men responded according to the completeness of 
their mental and moral likeness to the Dunker type. If 
they were conscious of their likeness to the Dunkers, 
they united with the latter. If, on the other hand, they 
were conscious of being unlike the Dunkers, they not only 
remained outside the Dunker organization, but became ani- 
mated with a hostility to it and its members. In either 
case the decision tended to confirm people in their atti- 
tude. Thus, differentiation became greater and finally 
permanent. The removal to America and consequent de- 
cay of the sect in Europe was due to the lack of assimila- 
tion in the districts where the Dunker congregations were 
located. The decay of the congregation at j Cref eld was 
due to lack of social assimilation of the elements that 
composed it ; that at Schwarzenau to the introduction of 
social heterogeneity into the population of Wittgenstein. 

The origin of the sect in America was due, as we saw, 
to a greater complexity of causes. It began with a con- 
sciousness of unlikeness to the elements of the social 
population at Germantown, made apparent by the close 
contact of the Dunkers with the other elements located 
there. It was complicated, however, by the fact that 
Becker and many of his fellow settlers had been Dunkers 
in Germany, and therefore imitated the Dunkers there, 



CONCLUSION SSI 

when the social situation at Germantown had suggested 
the need of a new social organization. 

Consciousness of kind determined the course of the 
early history in America. The character of the country 
about Philadelphia had mlde very complex the social pop- 
ulation settled there. The environments of Germantown 
and Conestoga were different and had much to do with 
the different ideals of Beissel and Becker. The resulting 
differences of ideals made the two parties • recognize 
their unlikenesses, and finally determined their perma- 
nent separation. Lack of communication and association 
had meanwhile hindered the process of socialization. 

It was noticed how the economic opportunities of new 
regions together with consciousness of kind account for 
the expansion of the Dunkers and its direction. 

This expansion stopped the process of socialization 
that had just begun, and lack of communication between 
the different congregations gave rise to variations in 
Dunker doctrines, customs, and forms of organization. 

With the growth of the country industrially, with the 
increase of means of communication, there arose a con- 
sciousness of these variations, and a desire in some 
Dunker minds to remove them. This gave rise to the 
ideal of uniformity. In the effort to realize that ideal 
there originated the great development in doctrine and 
organization that characterized the history of the Dunker 
church from 1835 to 1880-1882. It also gave rise to 
the policy of coercion in regard to the individual, that 
we saw in the same period. This process of unification, 
or centralization, reached its zenith in 1882. 

It was observed, furthermore, that with the develop- 
ment of means of communication and association there 
set in another tendency. The great environing society 
began to make itself felt upon the social life of the Dun- 



232 THE BUNKERS IN AMERICA 

kers. The larger socializing process had begun. There 
began to develop a consciousness of kind between the 
Dunkers and the other social elements about them. This 
gave rise to the liberalization of the Dunker church. 

In every step of this development we have noticed the 
causes. The whole movement was conditioned by the 
physical nature of the country. The fundamental social 
fact in the origin and development of the Dunkers was a 
consciousness of kind. That had been determined by 
the physical character of the country along the Rhine in 
Germany, which had allowed various elexnenis to congre- 
gate there. Likewise, in America that which developed 
the consciousness among the Dunkers that they were 
more alike than they were like the other elements of the 
population here, was the fact that the country was of 
such a nature that it attracted many kinds of people from 
different nations and regions. This was repeated, when 
the Dunkers spread out over what is now the United 
States. On "the other hand, the physical nature of the 
United States was such that the elements that congre- 
gated here in its early history, possessed potential re- 
semblance. That fact determined that American society 
should be progressive, one in which the various elements 
should gradually be socialized. The socialization is 
simply a part of that great process tnat is still in 
progress. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Acrelius, < 'History of New Sweden' '. (Valuable for the light it 
throws upon the situation in early Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, and especially for its account of his visit to Beissel 
at Ephrata.) 

John Arndt, "True Chrisnianity". (Throws light on the ideas 
prevalent among certain sectarians of Germany). 

Gottfried Arnold, "Unpartaische Kirchen — und Ketzer His- 
torien, etc." 
" " "Die Erste Liebe". 

(Both are valuable as sources of information about the 
parties and beliefs current among them in Germany at the 
time of the origin of the Dunkers). 

T. C. Banfield, "Industry on the Rhine, — Agriculture 7 '. Lon- 
don, 1846. 

Robert Barclay, "Apology for the Quakers". 

u u u£ Catechism and Confession of Faith". 
" " "Religious Societies of the Commonwealth". 

B. Bauer, ' 'Der Einf luss des Englischen Quakerthum auf die 
deutsche Cultur, u. s. w," 

William Bauer, "Religious Life in Germany during the Wars 
of Indepedence". 

Samuel Bownas, ' ' An Account of the Life, Travels and Christ- 
ian Experiences in the Work of the Ministry of Samuel 
Bownas". 

M. G. Brumbaugh, "History of the Brethren". 

A. Brons, < 'Ursprung, Entwickelung und Shicksale der Taufges- 
innten, oder Mennonites, etc." 

T. F. Chambers, "Early Germans of New Jersey". 

S. H. Cobb, "Story of the Palatines". 

" " "Palatine or German Immigration to New York 

and Pennsylvania". 

C A. Cornelius, "Die Niederlandischen Widertaeufer, u. s, w." 
" " "Geschichte des Muensterischen Aufruhrs, Part 
II, "Die Widertaufe". 



m THE B UNKERS IN AMERICA 

Danker and Schluyter, "Journal". (Translated by H. C. Mur- 
hpy in Vol, I of the Memoirs or the Long Island Historical 
Society. Valuable for the light it throws upon the customs 
and habits of the people of America, especially for the Laba- 
dists of Maryland). 

John Dickinson, "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the 
Inhabitants of the British Colonies. " (Valuable for the 
insight it affords into the thoughts and customs of the com- 
mon people of Pennsylvania at an early day). 

F. Dibelius, "Gottfried Arnold, sein Leben und seine Bedeutung 
fur Kirche und Theologie". 

F. K. Diffenderfer, "The Palatine and Quaker as Common- 
wealth Builders". 
" < < "The German Exodus to England in 1709." 

(Pennsylvania German Society Proceedings, vol. 
17.) 
" " "German Immigration into Pennsylvania". 

Jos. H. Dubbs, ' 'Founding of the German Churches of Penn- 
sylvania" (Pennsylvania Magazine of Biography and His- 
tory, vol. 17. ) 

Morgan Edwards, "Materials towards a History of the Baptists 
in America". (Very important for a knowledge of the 
early Dunker congregations in America). 

Fisher, "The Making of Pennsylvania; an Analysis of the Ele- 
ments of its Population". 

John Fiske, "Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America". 
4t " "Old Virginia and her Neighbors". 

George Fox, "Journal". 

K. F. Geiser, "Redemptioners and Indented Servants, etc." 

P. E. Gibbons, "Pennsylvania Dutch, and other Essays", 

Max Goebel, "Die Geschichte des Christlichen Lebens in der 
rhenisch-westphaelischen, evangelischen Kirche". (Very 
valuable for a knowledge of religious conditions in the 
Rhine valley in the period in which the Dunkers originated). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 235 

J. I. Good, ''History of the Reformed Church in Germany, 
1620—1890". 

"Historisch — Topographisch — Statistiche Beschreibung der Stadt 
Gersheim". (No author given; In Union Theological Sem- 
inary Library, New York City). 

"German American Annals", vol. 1 — 12. (Published by the 
German American Society, Philadelphia, Penna). 

L. Haeusser, "Geschichte der rhenischen Pfalz." (Very valu- 
able). 

"Hallische Nachrichten, etc., 1787". (These are reports of the 
United Evangelical Churches in Pennsylvania at that time, 
and are very valuable). 

Henderson, "A Short History of Germany", 2 vols. 

A. Harnack, "History of Dogma", vol. 7. 

C. R. Hildeburn, "Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685 — 

1784". 2 vols. (Very valuable for a knowledge of the 

sources for the American period). 
H. R. Holsin@er, ' 'History of the Tunkers and of the Brethren 

Church". (Very important for the divisions in the Dunker 

church in its later history). 
O. Kuhns, ' 'German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsyl- 
vania". (One of the best small books on these settlements). 
Karl Lamprecht, "Deutsche Geschichte", 7 vols. 
' 'List of Works relating to the Germans in the United States in 

the Library of Congress". Compiled by A. P. C. Griffen, 

Chief Bibliographer, Washington. 

D. Miller, "Pennsylvania German". (A collection of Prose 

and Poetry in the dialeet). 
Menno Symons, "Opera Omnia Theologica". Amsterdam: 1681. 

(In Dutch). 
"Gottlieb Mittelberger's Journey to Pennsylvania in the year 

1750, and Return to Germany in the Year 1754, etc.", 

translated by Eben, Philadelphia, 1898. 



236 THE D UNKERS IN AMERICA 

A. C. Mters, "Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsyl- 

vania, 1682—1750". 
S. B. O'Callaghan, "Documentary History of New York". 
Oncken, "Allgemeine Geschichte: Zeitalter des Friedrichs d. 

Grossen". 
F. D. Pastorius, ' < A Particular Geographical Description of the 
Lately Discovered Province of Pennsylvania". (Memoirs of 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. 4, Prt. 2, 1850.) 
"Penn's and Logan's Correspondence". (Ibid, vols. 9, 10.) 
Penn, "Select Works". 3 vols. 
Penn, "Works". 2 vols. 

"Pennsylvania, the German Influence in its Settlement and 
Development. Prepared by the authority of the Penmsyl- 
vania German Society". 2 vols. 
S. W. Pennypacker, "The Pennsylvania Dutchman, and wherein 
he excelled". 
" " "The Settlement of Germantown". 

" " "Johann Gottfried Seelig, and the Hymn Book 

of the Hermits of the Wissahickon' \ (In Pennsyl- 
vania Magazine of History and Biography. Also 
printed separately). 
" " "Historical and Biographical Sketches". (All 

of these are of considerable importance). 
I. D. Rupp, "History of Lancaster County' \ 

" " "He Pasa Ecclesia. An Original History of the 

Religious Denominations existing at present in the 
United States". Philadelphia: 1844. 
" " "Early History of Pennsylvania, etc." 

B. Rush, "Historical Notes of Dr. B. Rush, 1777", edited by 

Dr- S. Weir Mitchell. . (Also to be found in Penna. Mag. 

History and Biog., April, 1903). 
J. F. Sachse, "The Fatherland, 1450— 1700, showing the part 
it bore in the discovery, exploration and development, etc., of 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 237 

Pennsylvania". (In Pennsylvania German Society Proceedings 

and Addresses, vol. 7), 
Alvin Schultz, "Das haeusliche Leben der europaeischen Kul- 
turvoelker, von Mittelalter bis zur zweiten Haelfte des 18 
Jahrhunderts". (Valuable on the details of dress and 
other customs in the period of the origin of the Dunkers). 
O. Seidensticher, i 'The First Century of German Printing in 
America, 1723—1830". 
m " "Germans in Pennsylvania". 
" " "Bilder aus der deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Ges- 

chichte, etc". 

" " "Die Erste Ein wander ung in America und die 

Grundung von Germaotown im Jahre 1683, etc." 

•'* " "Ephrata: eine Amer. Klostergeschiehte". (All 

these by Seidensticher are of great value). 

Wm. Sewell, "History of the Rise and Progress of the People 

called Quakers". 
C. G. Sower, "Bishop Christopher Sower of Germantown". 
P. J. Spener, "Werke". 

Robert Todd, "Robert Hunter and the Settlement of the Pala- 
tines". (In the Memorial History of the City of New 
York, vol. 2, chapter 4). 
J. W. Wayland, "The Germans of the Valley". (In the Vir- 
ginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 9). 
H. F. Wakeman, "Europe from 1598—1715". 

Special Sources. 

Besides the above of more general interest to the student of 
Dunker history, the following books and periodicals are of 
special value, a ad have been used largely in the preparation of 
the dissertation. 

A, Mack, < 'A Plain View of the Rites and Ordinances of the 
House of God, arranged in the form of a Conversation be- 
tween a Father and Son, to which are added Ground- 



238 THE D UNEERS IN AMERICA 

Searching Questions, answered by the Author". 

(A translation of "Kurz und Einfaeltige Vorstellung der 

aeussern aber doch heiligen Rechten und Ordnungen des 

Hauses Gottes, u. s. w.", a copy of which is to be found in 

the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

This is quite a good translation. It is published by the 

Brethren Publishing Co., Elgin, 111.) 
Christopher Sauer, "Almanacs". 

" " " Sendschreiber^ ' . 

" " "Geistliche Magazin". (Some numbers 

missing). (All of these are to be found in the Library of 

thePenna. His. Soc.) 
Conrad Beissel, "Zeugnisse". 

" " "Mystische und Erfahrungs-volle Episteln". 

(Both of these are bound in one volume, now in the 
Library of Union Theological Seminary, New York). 
Brothers Lamech and Agrippa, "Chronicon Ephratense", 

translated into English by Dr. Max Hark. 
George Adam Martin, "Christliche Bibliothek". (In Penna. 

His. Soc. Library). 
VanBraght, "Der BluetigeSchau-Platz", or, Rupp's translation, 

"The Bloody Mirror' 1 . 
"The Berleberg Bible", edited by Mack and Hochman, and 

other Pietists. 
"The Classified Minutes of the Annual Meeting". 
"The Revised Minutes of the Annual Meeting". 
u Geistliche Fama". (A periodical in the Library of the Historical 

Society of Pennsylvania. ") 
"Minutes aad Letters of the Coetus of Pennsylvania, 1734 — 

1792". 
Files of the Gospel Messenger, Progressive Christian, Brethren 

Evangelist, Brethren Family Almanac, The Brethren 

Annual, and some minor publications of the different 

branches of the church. 



VITA. 

The writer was born Oct. 12, 1871 in Black Hawk County, Iowa. 
He attended the public schools there and in Linn county Iowa. 
After a year in the preparatory department of Upper Iowa 
University, at Fayette, he taught school, and subsequently 
entered the College at Upper Iowa University, from which he 
received the degree of Bachelor of Literature. He then went to 
Iowa College at Grinnell, Iowa, where he received the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. He then served as pastor of the Brethren 
Church at Waterloo, Iowa for six years. In 1903 he received 
the degree of Master of Arts in Columbia University, his thesis 
being on "The Pennsylvania Dutch Settlement of Orange Town- 
ship, Black Hawk County, Iowa, a Paper in Descriptive Socio- 
logy". In 1904 h@ received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity 
in the Union Theological Seminary, New York, his thesis being 
on, < < A Critical Comparison of the Creeds of the Ancient Church 
Orders". In 1904 he was awarded the "Hitchcock Prize in 
Church History" in Union Theological Seminary, New York. 



/...•'- 



nn 



THE DUNKERS 



A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION 



BY 



JOHN LEWIS GILLIN, A. M., B. D. 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



new York 

1906 




mi * 



